m 


■f    ^ 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

SANTA  BARBARA 

COLLEGE  OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 


/ 


■m: 


"THAT   KIND  OF  AK   ACCIDENT,"   SAID   HE. 


THE   WEECKER 


BY 

EGBERT  LOUIS   STEVENSON 

AND 

LLOYD   OSBOURNE 


ILLUSTRATED  BY  WILLIAM  HOLE  AND    W.  L.  METCALF 


NEW   YORK 

CHAELES    SCEIBNEE'S    SONS 

1895 


COPYRIGHT,   1891,  BY 
ROBERT   LOUIS  STEVENSON  AND   LLOYD  OSBOURNE, 
FOR  THE  UNITED  STATES  OF  AMERICA. 


PRINTED  BY  BERWICK  AND  SMITH, 
BOSTON,   MASS.,  U.S.A. 


SANTA  BAK^AP^A  COLLEGE  Ul^V 


CONTENTS. 


PROLOGUE. 

PAGE 

In  the  Marque8as 1 


THE  YARN. 

CHAPTER 

L    A  Sound  Commercial  Education 17 

II.     RoussiLLON  Wine 33 

m.    To  Introduce  Mr.  Pinkerton 47 

IV.  In  which  I  experience  Extremes  of  Fortune     67 

V.  In  which  I  am  down  on  my  Luck  in  Paris  .    84 

VI.    In  which  I  GO  West 104 

VII.  Irons  in  the  Fire  :  Opes  Strepitumque      .    .     .  124 

Vill.     Faces  on  the  City  Front 156 

IX.  The  Wreck  of  the  "  Flying  Scud  "  .     .     .     .  172 

X.  In  which  the  Crew  vanish   ......  192 

XL  In  which  Jim  and  I  take  Different  Ways  225 

XIL     The  "Xorah  Creina" 244 

XIII.  The  Island  and  the  Wreck       ■..«..,  2G5 

XIV.  The  Cabin  of  the  "Flying  Scud"    ....  281 
XV.  The  Cargo  of  the  "  Flying  Scud  "  .    .    .    .  300 

XVI.  In  which  I  turn  Smuggler,  and  the  Cap- 
tain Casuist 318 

V 


vi  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

XVII.     Light  from  the  ]\Ian  of  War 336 

XVIII.  Cross-Qukstions  and  Crooked  Answers    .    .  354 

XIX.     Travels  with  a  Shyster 375 

XX.    Stallbridge-le-Carthew 405 

XXT.    Face  to  Face 421 

XXir.     The  Remittance  Man 432 

XXIII.  The  Budget  of  the  "Currency  Lass"     .    .  465 

XXIV.  A  Hard  Bargain 497 

XXV.    A  Bad  Bargain 516 

EPILOGUE : 
To  Will  H.  Low 545 


LIST  OF  illusteatio:n's. 


FAOB 

"that  kind  op  an  accident,"  said  he Frontispiece 

"yes,  it's  a  qtjeek  tarn,"  said  his  friend 16 

*' I  wanted  te  to  see  the  place,"  said  he 116 

"  GOING  at  fifty  THOUSAND,  THE  WRECK  OF  THE    BRIG   FLYING 


192 


MAMIE    ....    SAT,     AN    APPARENT    QUEEN,     AMONG     HER     RUDE 

SURROUNDING    AND    COMPANIONS 24i; 

SHE  LAY  HEAD  TO  THE  REEF,  WHERE  THE  HUGE  BLUE  WALL  OF 
THE  ROLLERS  WAS  FOREVER  RANGING  UP  AND  CRUMBLING 
DOWN 270 

AND    LO  !    THERE   WAS  DISCLOSED   BUT   A    TRAYFUL  OF   PAPERS .  .    284 

"I  AM  AFRAID  I  AM  AN  AMERICAN,"   I  SAID,  APOLOGETICALLY.  .     340 

THE    day's    work    DONE    AND    THE    EVENING    BEFORE    US  ;     JUST 

START    IN    WITH    THE    WHOLE    STORY 360 

A  LADY  WITH  SILVER  HAIR,  A  SLENDER  SILVER  VOICE,  AND 
A  STREAM  OF  INSIGNIFICANT  INFORMATION  NOT  TO  BE 
DIVERTED,   LED  ME   THROUGH  THE  PICTURE    GALLERY 414 

THE  DOMAIN,  SYDNEY. "  MY  WORD,  NO  !  "   REPLIED  THE  LITTLE 

MAN.        "l   JUST    SIT    HERE    AND    READ    THE    'DEAD   BIRD.'"    442 

NOW    HE    ROSE    MECHANICALLY    SHAKING    AND    STUMBLING    LIKE 

A    DRUNKARD    AFTER    A    DEBAUCH 498 


THE    WRECKER 


PEOLOGUE. 

IN   THE   MARQUESAS. 

It  was  about  three  o'clock  of  a  winter's  afternoon  in 
Tai-o-hae,  the  French  capital  and  port  of  entry  of  the 
Marquesas  Islands.  The  trades  blew  strong  and  squally ; 
the  surf  roared  loud  on  the  shingle  beach;  and  the 
fifty-ton  schooner  of  war,  that  carries  the  flag  and 
influence  of  France  about  the  islands  of  the  cannibal 
group,  rolled  at  her  moorings  under  Prison  Hill.  The 
clouds  hung  low  and  black  on  the  surrounding  amphi- 
theatre of  mountains  ;  rain  had  fallen  earlier  in  the  day, 
real  tropic  rain,  a  waterspout  for  violence;  and  the 
green  and  gloomy  brow  of  the  mountain  was  still  seamed 
with  many  silver  threads  of  torrent. 

In  these  hot  and  healthy  islands  winter  is  but  a 
name.  The  rain  had  not  refreshed,  nor  could  the  wind 
invigorate,  the  dwellers  of  Tai-o-hae :  away  at  one  end, 
indeed,   the   commandant   was   directing   some    changes 


2  THE   WRECKER. 

in  the  residency  garden  beyond  Prison  Hill;  and  the 
gardeners,  being  all  convicts,  had  no  choice  but  to 
continue  to  obey.  All  other  folks  slumbered  and  took 
their  rest :  Vaekehu,  the  native  queen,  in  her  trim  house 
under  the  rustling  palms;  the  Tahitian  commissary,  in 
his  beflaggod  official  residence ;  the  merchants,  in  their 
deserted  stores ;  and  even  the  club-servant  in  the  club, 
his  head  fallen  forward  on  the  bottle-counter,  under 
the  map  of  the  world  and  the  cards  of  navy  officers. 
In  the  whole  length  of  the  single  shoreside  street,  with 
its  scattered  board  houses  looking  to  the  sea,  its  grate- 
ful shade  of  palms  and  green  jungle  of  puraos,  no 
moving  figure  could  be  seen.  Only,  at  the  end  of  the 
rickety  pier,  that  once  (in  the  prosperous  days  of  the 
American  rebellion)  was  used  to  groan  under  the  cotton 
of  John  Hart,  there  might  have  been  spied  upon  a  pile 
of  lumber  the  famous  tattooed  white  man,  the  living 
curiosity  of  Tai-o-hae. 

His  eyes  were  open,  staring  down  the  bay.  He  saw 
the  mountains  droop,  as  they  approached  the  entrance, 
and  break  down  in  cliffs ;  the  surf  boil  white  round  the 
two  sentinel  islets  ;  and  between,  on  the  narrow  bight 
of  blue  horizon,  Ua-pu  upraise  the  ghost  of  her  pinna- 
cled mountain  tops.  But  his  mind  would  take  no  account 
of  these  familiar  features ;  as  he  dodged  in  and  out  along 
the  frontier  line  of  sleep  and  waking,  memory  would 
serve  him  with  broken  fragments  of  the  past:  brown 
faces  and  white,  of  skipper  and  shipmate,  king  and  chief. 


IN   THE   MARQUESAS.  3 

would  arise  before  his  mind  and  vanish ;  he  would 
recall  old  voyages,  old  landfalls  in  the  hour  of  dawn  ; 
he  would  hear  again  the  drums  beat  for  a  man-eating 
festival ;  perhaps  he  would  summon  up  the  form  of  that 
island  princess  for  the  love  of  whom  he  had  submitted 
his  body  to  the  cruel  hands  of  the  tattooer,  and  now  sat 
on  the  lumber,  at  the  pier-end  of  Tai-o-hae,  so  strange 
a  figure  of  a  European.  Or  perhaps  from  yet  further 
back,  sounds  and  scents  of  England  and  his  childhood 
might  assail  him  :  the  merry  clamour  of  cathedral  bells, 
the  broom  upon  the  foreland,  the  song  of  the  river  on 
the  weir. 

It  is  bold  water  at  the  mouth  of  the  bay ;  you  can 
steer  a  ship  about  either  sentinel,  close  enough  to  toss 
a  biscuit  on  the  rocks.  Thus  it  chanced  that,  as  the 
tattooed  man  sat  dozing  and  dreaming,  he  was  startled 
into  wakefulness  and  animation  by  the  appearance  of 
a  flying  jib  beyond  the  western  islet.  Two  more  head- 
sails  followed ;  and  before  the  tattooed  man  had  scram- 
bled to  his  feet,  a  topsail  schooner,  of  some  hundred 
tons,  had  luffed  about  the  sentinel  and  was  standing 
up  the  bay,  close-hauled. 

The  sleeping  city  awakened  by  enchantment.  Natives 
appeared  upon  all  sides,  hailing  each  other  with  the 
magic  cry  "  Ehippy  "  —  ship  ;  the  Queen  stepped  forth  on 
her  verandah,  shading  her  eyes  under  a  hand  that  was 
a  miracle  of  the  fine  art  of  tattooing ;  the  commandant 
broke   from    his    domestic    convicts   and   ran    into    the 


4  THE   WRECKER. 

residency  for  his  glass  ;  the  harbor  master,  who  was  also 
the  gaoler,  came  speeding  down  the  Prison  Hill ;  the 
seventeen  brown  Kanakas  and  the  French  boatswain's 
mate,  that  make  up  the  complement  of  the  war-schooner, 
crowded  on  the  forward  deck ;  and  the  various  English, 
Americans,  Germans,  Poles,  Corsicans,  and  Scots  —  the 
merchants  and  the  clerks  of  Tai-o-hae  —  deserted  their 
places  of  business,  and  gathered,  according  to  invariable 
custom,  on  the  road  before  the  club. 

So  quickly  did  these  dozen  whites  collect,  so  short 
are  the  distances  in  Tai-o-hae,  that  they  were  already 
exchanging  guesses  as  to  the  nationality  and  business 
of  the  strange  vessel,  before  she  had  gone  about  upon  her 
second  board  towards  the  anchorage.  A  moment  after, 
English  colours  were  broken  out  at  the  main  truck. 

"  I  told  you  she  was  a  Johnny  Bull  —  knew  it  by  her 
headsails,"  said  an  evergreen  old  salt,  still  qualified  (if 
he  could  anywhere  have  found  an  owner  unacquainted 
with  his  story)  to  adorn  another  quarter-deck  and  lose 
another  ship. 

"  She  has  American  lines,  anyway,"  said  the  astute 
Scotch  engineer  of  the  gin-mill ;  "  it's  my  belief  she's  a 
yacht." 

"  That's  it,"  said  the  old  salt,  ''  a  yacht !  look  at  her 
davits,  and  the  boat  over  the  stern." 

"  A  yacht  in  your  eye  ! "  said  a  Glasgow  voice.  "  Look 
at  her  red  ensign  !     A  yacht !  not  much  she  isn't ! " 

"  You  can  close  the  store,  anyway,  Tom,"  observed  a 
gentlemanly   German.      "Bon  jour,   mon   Prince!"   he 


IN   THE   MARQUESAS.  5 

added,  as  a  dark,  intelligent  native  cantered  by  on  a  neat 
chestnut.     "  Vous  allez  hoire  un  verre  de  hi^re  f  " 

But  Prince  Stanilas  Moanatini,  the  only  reasonably 
busy  human  creature  on  the  island,  was  riding  hot-spur 
to  view  this  moruing's  landslip  on  the  mountain  road: 
the  sun  already  visibly  declined;  night  was  imminent; 
and  if  he  would  avoid  the  perils  of  darkness  and  prec- 
ipice, and  the  fear  of  the  dead,  the  haunters  of  the 
jungle,  he  must  for  once  decline  a  hospitable  invitation. 
Even  had  he  been  minded  to  alight,  it  presently  appeared 
there  would  be  difficulty  as  to  the  refreshment  offered. 

"  Beer !  "  cried  the  Glasgow  voice.  "  No  such  a  thing ; 
I  tell  you  there's  only  eight  bottles  in  the  club !  Here's 
the  first  time  I've  seen  British  colours  in  this  port ! 
and  the  man  that  sails  under  them  has  got  to  drink 
that  beer." 

The  proposal  struck  the  public  mind  as  fair,  though 
far  from  cheering ;  for  some  time  back,  indeed,  the  very 
name  of  beer  had  been  a  sound  of  sorrow  in  the  club, 
and  the  evenings  had  passed  in  dolorous  computation. 

"  Here  is  Havens,"  said  one,  as  if  welcoming  a  fresh 
topic.     "What  do  you  think  of  her,  Havens  ?  " 

"I  don't  think,"  replied  Havens,  a  tall,  bland,  cool- 
looking,  leisurely  Englishman,  attired  in  spotless  duck, 
and  deliberately  dealing  with  a  cigarette.  "  I  may  say 
I  know.  She's  consigned  to  me  from  Auckland  by 
Donald  &  Edenborough.     I  am  on  my  way  aboard." 

"  What  ship  is  she  ?  "  asked  the  ancient  mariner. 


6  THE   'WTi.ECKER. 

"Haven't  an  idea,"  returned  Havens.  "Some  tramp 
they  have  chartered." 

With  that,  he  placidly  resumed  his  walk,  and  was 
soon  seated  in  the  stern-sheets  of  a  whaleboat  manned 
by  uproarious  Kanakas,  himself  daintily  perched  out  of 
the  way  of  the  least  maculation,  giving  his  commands 
in  an  unobtrusive,  dinner-table  tone  of  voice,  and  sweep- 
ing neatly  enough  alongside  the  schooner. 

A  weather-beaten  captain  received  him  at  the  gang- 
way. 

"You  are  consigned  to  us,  I  think,"  said  he.  "I  am 
Mr.  Havens." 

"That  is  right,  sir,"  replied  the  captain,  shaking 
hands.  "You  will  find  the  owner,  Mr.  Dodd,  below. 
Mind  the  fresh  paint  on  the  house." 

Havens  stepped  along  the  alley-way,  and  descended 
the  ladder  into  the  main  cabin. 

"Mr.  Dodd,  I  believe,"  said  he,  addressing  a  small- 
ish, bearded  gentleman,  who  sat  writing  at  the  table. 
"\Vhy,"he  cried,  "it  isn't  Loudon  Dodd?" 

"Myself,  my  dear  fellow,"  replied  Mr.  Dodd,  spring- 
ing to  his  feet  with  companionable  alacrity.  "  I  had  a 
half-hope  it  might  be  you,  when  I  found  your  name  on 
the  papers.  Well,  there's  no  change  in  you;  still  the 
same  placid,  fresh-looking  Britisher." 

"  I  can't  return  the  compliment ;  for  you  seem  to 
have  become  a  Britisher  yourself/'  said  Havens. 


IN   THE   MARQUESAS.  7 

"1  promise  you,  I  am  quite  unchanged,"  returned 
Dodd.  "  The  red  tablecloth  at  the  top  of  the  stick  is 
not  my  flag;  it's  my  partner's.  He  is  not  dead,  but 
sleepeth.  There  he  is,"  he"  added,  pointing  to  a  bust 
•which  formed  one  of  the  numerous  unexpected  orna- 
ments of  that  unusual  cabin. 

Havens  politely  studied  it.  "A  fine  bust,"  said  he; 
"and  a  very  nice-looking  fellow." 

"Yes;  he's  a  good  fellow,"  said  Dodd.  "He  runs  me 
now.     It's  all  his  money." 

"He  doesn't  seem  to  be  particularly  short  of  it," 
added  the  other,  peering  with  growing  wonder  round 
the  cabin. 

"  His  money,  my  taste,"  said  Dodd.  "  The  black- 
walnut  bookshelves  are  Old  English ;  the  books  all  mine, 
—  mostly  Renaissance  French.  You  should  see  how 
the  beach-combers  wilt  away  when  they  go  round  them 
looking  for  a  change  of  Seaside  Library  novels.  The 
mirrors  are  genuine  Venice ;  that's  a  good  piece  in  the 
corner.  The  daubs  are  mine  —  and  his;  the  mudding 
mine." 

"  Mudding  ?     What  is  that  ?  "  asked  Havens. 

"These  bronzes,"  replied  Dodd.  "I  began  life  as  a 
sculptor." 

"  Yes ;  I  remember  something  about  that,"  said  the 
other.  "  I  think,  too,  you  said  you  were  interested  in 
Californian  real  estate." 

"Surely,  I  never  went  so  far  as  that,"  said  Dodd. 
"  Interested  ?     I  guess  not.     Involved,  perhaps.     I  was 


8  THE   WRECKER. 

born  an  artist ;  I  never  took  an  interest  in  anything  but 
art.  If  I  were  to  pile  up  this  old  schooner  to-morrow," 
he  added,  "I  declare  I  believe  I  would  try  the  thing 
again ! " 

"  Insured  ?  "  inquired  Havens. 

"  Yes,"  responded  Dodd.  "  There's  some  fool  in  'Frisco 
who  insures  us,  and  comes  down  like  a  wolf  on  the  fold 
on  the  profits  ;  but  we'll  get  even  with  him  some  day." 

"Well,  I  suppose  it's  all  right  about  the  cargo/'  said 
Havens. 

"  0,  I  suppose  so ! "  replied  Dodd.  "  Shall  we  go 
into  the  papers  ?  " 

"  We'll  have  all  to-morrow,  you  know,"  said  Havens ; 
"  and  they'll  be  rather  expecting  you  at  the  club.  C'est 
Vheure  de  Tahsinthe.  Of  course,  Loudon,  you'll  dine 
with  me  later  on." 

Mr.  Dodd  signified  his  acquiescence;  drew  on  his 
white  coat,  not  without  a  trifling  difficulty,  for  he  was 
a  man  of  middle  age,  and  well-to-do  j  arranged  his  beard 
and  moustaches  at  one  of  the  Venetian  mirrors  ;  and, 
taking  a  broad  felt  hat,  led  the  way  through  the  trade- 
room  into  the  ship's  waist. 

The  stern  boat  Avas  waiting  alongside,  —  a  boat  of  an 
elegant  model,  with  cushions  and  polished  hard-wood 
fittings. 

"You  steer,"  observed  Loudon.  "You  know  the  best 
place  to  laud." 

"I  never  like  to  steer  another  man's  boat,"  replied 
Havens. 


IN   THE   MARQUESAS.  9 

"Call  it  my  partner's,  and  cry  quits,"  returned  Lou- 
don, getting  nonchalantly  down  the  side. 

Havens  followed  and  took  the  yoke  lines  without 
further  protest.  "  I  am  sure  I  don't  know  how  you 
make  this  pay,"  he  said.  "  To  begin  with,  she  is  too 
big  for  the  trade,  to  my  taste ;  and  then  you  carr}'  so 
much  style." 

"  I  don't  know  that  she  does  pay,"  returned  Loudon. 
"I  never  pretend  to  be  a  business  man.  My  partner 
appears  happy ;  and  the  money  is  all  his,  as  I  told  you 
—  I  only  bring  the  want  of  business  habits." 

"  You  rather  like  the  berth,  I  suppose  ? "  suggested 
Havens. 

"Yes,"  said  Loudon ;   "it  seems  odd,  but  I  rather  do." 

While  they  were  yet  on  board,  the  sun  had  dipped ; 
the  sunset  gun  (a  rifle)  cracked  from  the  war-schooner, 
and  the  colours  had  been  handed  down.  Dusk  was  deepen- 
ing as  they  came  ashore  5  and  the  Cerde  Internationale  (as 
the  club  is  officially  and  significantly  named)  began  to 
shine,  from  under  its  low  verandas,  with  the  light  of 
many  lamps.  The  good  hours  of  the  twenty-four  drew  on ; 
the  hateful,  poisonous  day-fly  of  Nukaliiva,  was  begin- 
ning to  desist  from  its  activity ;  the  land-breeze  came  in 
refreshing  draughts ;  and  the  club  men  gathered  together 
for  the  hour  of  absinthe.  To  the  commandant  himself, 
to  the  man  whom  he  Ava,s  then  contending  with  at 
billiards  —  a  trader  from  the  next  island,  honorary 
member   of    the    club,    and    once    carpenter's   mate   on 


iO  THE  WRECKER. 

board  a  Yankee  war-ship  —  to  the  doctor  of  the  port,  to 
the  Brigadier  of  Gendarmerie,  to  the  opium  farmer,  and 
to  all  the  white  men  Avhom  the  tide  of  commerce,  or  the 
chances  of  shipwreck  and  desertion,  had  stranded  on  the 
beach  of  Tai-o-hae,  Mr.  Loudon  Dodd  was  formally 
presented ;  by  all  ( since  he  was  a  man  of  pleasing 
exterior,  smooth  ways,  and  an  unexceptionable  flow  of 
talk,  whether  in  French  or  English)  he  was  excellently 
well  received ;  and  presently,  with  one  of  the  last  eight 
bottles  of  beer  on  a  table  at  his  elbow,  found  himself 
the  rather  silent  centre-piece  of  a  voluble  group  on  the 
verandah. 

Talk  in  the  South  Seas  is  all  upon  one  pattern ;  it  is 
a  wide  ocean,  indeed,  but  a  narrow  world :  you  shall 
never  talk  long  and  not  hear  the  name  of  Bully  Hayes, 
a  naval  hero  whose  exploits  and  deserved  extinction 
left  Europe  cold;  commerce  will  be  touched  on,  copra, 
shell,  perhaps  cotton  or  fungus ;  but  in  a  far-away, 
dilletante  fashion,  as  by  men  not  deeply  interested ; 
through  all,  the  names  of  schooners  and  their  captains, 
will  keep  coming  and  going,  thick  as  may-flies ;  and 
news  of  the  last  shipwreck  will  be  placidly  exchanged 
and  debated.  To  a  stranger,  this  conversation  will  at 
first  seem  scarcely  brilliant ;  but  he  will  soon  catch  the 
tone ;  and  by  the  time  he  shall  have  moved  a  year  or  so 
in  the  island  world,  and  come  across  a  good  number  of 
the  schooners  so  that  every  captain's  name  calls  up  a 
figure  in  pyjamas  or   white  duck,  and  becomes  used  to 


IN   THE   MAKQUESAS.  IJ 

a  certain  laxity  of  moral  tone  which  prevails  (as  in 
memory  of  Mr.  Hayes)  on  smuggling,  ship-scuttling, 
barratry,  piracy,  the  labour  trade,  and  other  kindred  fields 
of  human  activity,  he  will  find  Polynesia  no  less  amusing 
and  no  less  instructive  than  Pall  Mall  or  Paris. 

Mr.  Loudon  Dodd,  though  he  was  new  to  the  group 
of  the  Marquesas,  was  already  an  old,  salted  trader ; 
he  knew  the  ships  and  the  captains ;  he  had  assisted,  in 
other  islands,  at  the  first  steps  of  some  career  of  which 
he  now  heard  the  culmination,  or  (vice  versa)  he  had 
brought  with  him  from  further  south  the  end  of  some 
story  which  had  begun  in  Tai-o-hae.  Among  other  matter 
of  interest,  like  other  arrivals  in  the  South  Seas,  he  had 
a  wreck  to  announce.  The  Jolm  T.  Richards,  it  appeared, 
had  met  the  fate  of  other  island  schooners. 

"  Dickinson  piled  her  up  on  Palmerston  Island,"  Dodd 
announced. 

"  Who  were  the  owners  ? "  inquired  one  of  the  club 
men. 

"  0,  the  usual  parties ! "  returned  Loudon,  —  "  Capsi- 
cum &  Co." 

A  smile  and  a  glance  of  intelligence  went  round  the 
group ;  and  perhaps  Loudon  gave  voice  to  the  general 
sentiment  by  remarking,  "  Talk  of  good  business !  I 
know  nothing  better  than  a  schooner,  a  competent  cap- 
tain, and  a  sound,  reliable  reef." 

"  Good  business  !  There's  no  such  a  thing ! "  said  the 
Glasgow  man,  "Nobody  makes  anything  but  the  mis- 
sionaries —  dash  it ! " 


12  THE   WRECKEft. 

"  I  don't  know,"  said  another.  "  There's  a  good  deal 
in  opium." 

"  It's  a  good  job  to  strike  a  tabooed  pearl-island,  say, 
about  the  fourth  year,"  remarked  a  third ;  "  skim  the 
whole  lagoon  on  the  sly,  and  up  stick  and  away  before 
the  French  get  wind  of  you." 

"  A  pig  nokket  of  cold  is  good,"  observed  a  German. 

"There's  something  in  wrecks,  too,"  said  Havens. 
"  Look  at  that  man  in  Honolulu,  and  the  ship  that  went 
ashore  on  Waikiki  Reef ;  it  was  blowing  a  kona,  hard ; 
and  she  began  to  break  up  as  soon  as  she  touched. 
Lloyd's  agent  had  her  sold  inside  an  hour;  and  before 
dark,  when  she  went  to  pieces  in  earnest,  the  man  that 
bought  her  had  feathered  his  nest.  Three  more  hours 
of  daylight,  and  he  might  have  retired  from  business. 
As  it  was,  he  built  a  house  on  Beretania  Street,  and 
called  it  for  the  shij)." 

"Yes,  there's  something  in  wrecks  sometimes,"  said 
the  Glasgow  voice;  "but  not  often." 

"  As  a  general  rule,  there's  deuced  little  in  anything," 
said  Havens. 

"Well,  I  believe  that's  a  Christian  fact,"  cried  the 
other.  "  What  I  want  is  a  secret ;  get  hold  of  a  rich 
man  by  the  right  place,  and  make  him  squeal." 

"  I  suppose  you  know  it's  not  thought  to  be  the 
ticket,"  returned  Havens. 

"  I  don't  care  for  that ;  it's  good  enough  for  me,"  cried 
the  man  from  Glasgow,  stoutly.     "The  only  devil  of  it 


IN  THE  MARQUESAS.  13 

is,  a  fellow  can  never  find  a  secret  in  a  place  like  the 
South  Seas :  only  in  London  and  Paris." 

"McGibbon's  been  reading  some  dime-novel,  I  sup- 
pose," said  one  club  man. 

"  He's  been  reading  Aurora  Floyd,"  remarked  another. 

"And  what  if  I  have?"  cried  McGibbon.  "It's  all 
true.  Look  at  the  newspapers !  It's  just  your  con- 
founded ignorance  that  sets  you  snickering.  I  tell  you, 
it's  as  much  a  trade  as  underwriting,  and  a  dashed  sight 
more  honest." 

The  sudden  acrimony  of  these  remarks  called  Loudon 
(who  was  a  man  of  peace)  from  his  reserve.  "It's 
rather  singular,"  said  he,  "  but  I  seem  to  have  practised 
about  all  these  means  of  livelihood." 

"Tit  you  offer  vind  a  nokket?"  inquired  the  inarticu- 
late German,  eagerly. 

"  No.  I  have  been  most  kinds  of  fool  in  my  time," 
returned  Loudon,  "but  not  the  gold-digging  variety. 
Every  man  has  a  sane  spot  somewhere." 

"Well,  then,"  suggested  some  one,  "did  you  ever 
smuggle  opium  ?  " 

"  Yes,  I  did,"  said  Loudon. 

"Was  there  money  in  that  ?  " 

"  All  the  way,"  responded  Loudon. 

"  And  perhaps  you  bought  a  wreck  ?  "  asked  another. 

"Yes,  sir,"  said  Loudon. 

"How  did  that  pan  out  ?  "  pursued  the  questioner. 

"Well,  mine  was  a  peculiar  kind  of  wreck,"  replied 


l-^  THE   WRECKER. 

Loudon.  "  I  don't  know,  on  the  whole,  that  I  can  recom- 
mend that  branch  of  industry." 

"  Did  she  break  up  ?  "  asked  some  one. 

"  I  guess  it  was  rather  I  that  broke  down,"  says 
Loudon.     "  Head  not  big  enough." 

'•  Ever  try  the  blackmail  ?  "  inquired  Havens. 

"  Simple  as  you  see  me  sitting  here ! "  responded 
Dodd. 

"  Good  business  ?  " 

"Well,  I'm  not  a  lucky  man,  you  see,"  returned  the 
stranger.     "It  ought  to  have  been  good." 

"  You  had  a  secret  ?  "  asked  the  Glasgow  man. 

"  As  big  as  the  State  of  Texas." 

"  And  the  other  man  was  rich  ?  " 

"He  wasn't  exactly  Jay  Gould,  but  I  guess  he  could 
buy  these  islands  if  he  wanted." 

"  Why,  what  was  wrong,  then  ?  Couldn't  you  get 
hands  on  him  ?  " 

"It  took  time,  but  I  had  him  cornered  at  last;  and 
then—" 

"  What  then?  " 

"The  speculation  turned  bottom  up.  I  became  the 
man's  bosom  friend." 

"  The  deuce  you  did !  " 

"  He  couldn't  have  been  particular,  you  mean?  "  asked 
Dodd,  pleasantly.  "  Well,  no  ;  he's  a  man  of  rather  large 
sympathies." 

"If  you're  done  talking  nonsense,  Loudon,"  said 
Havens,  "  let's  be  getting  to  my  place  for  dinner." 


IN   THE   MARQUESAS.  15 

Outside,  the  night  was  full  of  the  roaring  of  the  surf. 
Scattered  lights  glowed  in  the  green  thicket.  Native 
women  came  by  twos  and  threes  out  of  the  darkness, 
smiled  and  ogled  the  two  whites,  perhaps  wooed  them 
with  a  strain  of  laughter,  and  went  by  again,  bequeath- 
ing to  the  air  a  heady  perfume  of  palm-oil  and  frangipani 
blossom.  From  the  club  to  j\Ir.  Havens's  residence  was 
but  a  step  or  two,  and  to  any  dweller  in  Europe  they 
must  have  seemed  steps  in  fairyland.  If  such  an  one 
could  but  have  followed  our  two  friends  into  the  wide- 
verandahed  house,  sat  down  with  them  in  the  cool  trel- 
lised  room,  where  the  Avine  shone  on  the  lamp-lighted 
tablecloth ;  tasted  of  their  exotic  food  —  the  raw  fish, 
the  breadfruit,  the  cooked  bananas,  the  roast  pig  served 
with  the  inimitable  miti,  and  that  king  of  delicacies, 
palm-tree  salad ;  seen  and  heard  by  fits  and  starts,  now 
peering  round  the  corner  of  the  door,  now  railing  within 
against  invisible  assistants,  a  certain  comely  young  native 
lady  in  a  sacque,  who  seemed  too  modest  to  be  a  member 
of  the  family,  and  too  imperious  to  be  less  ;  and  then  if 
such  an  one  were  whisked  again  through  space  to  Upper 
Tooting,  or  wherever  else  he  honored  the  domestic  gods, 
'•  I  have  had  a  dream,"  I  think  he  would  say,  as  he  sat  up, 
nibbing  his  eyes,  in  the  familiar  chimney-corner  chair, 
"I  have  had  a  dream  of  a  place,  and  I  declare  I  believe  it 
must  be  heaven."  But  to  Dodd  and  his  entertainer, 
all  this  amenity  of  the  tropic  night  and  all  these  dainties 
of  the  island  table,  were  grown  things  of  custom  j  and 


16  THE   WRECKER. 

they  fell  to  meat  like  men  who  were  hungry,  and  drifted 
into  idle  talk  like  men  who  were  a  trifle  bored. 

The  scene  in  the  club  was  referred  to. 

"  I  never  heard  you  talk  so  much  nonsense,  Loudon," 
said  the  host. 

"  Well,  it  seemed  to  me  there  was  sulphur  in  the  aii', 
so  I  talked  for  talking,"  returned  the  other.  "  But  it 
was  none  of  it  nonsense." 

"  Do  you  mean  to  say  it  was  true  ?  "  cried  Havens,  — 
"that  about  the  opium  and  the  wreck,  and  the  black- 
mailing and  the  man  who  became  your  friend?  " 

"Every  last  word  of  it,"  said  Loudon. 

"You  seem  to  have  been  seeing  life,"  returned  the 
other. 

"  Yes,  it's  a  queer  yarn,"  said  his  friend ;  "  if  you 
think  you  would  like,  I'll  tell  it  you." 

Here  follows  the  yarn  of  Loudon  Dodd,  not  as  he  told 
it  to  his  friend,  but  as  he  subsequently  wrote  it. 


•YES,    IT"S   A    gUEER    YAKN,"    SAIU    HIS   FKIE.ND. 


THE    YARN. 

CHAPTER  I. 

A   SOUND    COMMEBCIAI,   EDUCATION. 

The  beginning  of  this  yam  is  my  poor  father's  char. 
acter.  There  never  was  a  better  man,  nor  a  handsomer, 
nor  (in  my  view)  a  more  unhappy  —  unhappy  in  his 
business,  in  his  pleasures,  in  his  place  of  residence,  and 
(I  am  sorry  to  say  it)  in  his  son.  He  had  begun  life  as 
a  land-surveyor,  soon  became  interested  in  real  estate, 
branched  off  into  many  other  speculations,  and  had  the 
name  of  one  of  the  smartest  men  in  the  State  of  Mus- 
kegon. ''  Dodd  has  a  big  head,"  people  used  to  say  ;  but 
I  was  never  so  sure  of  his  capacity.  His  luck,  at  least, 
was  beyond  doubt  for  long;  his  assiduity,  always.  He 
fought  in  that  daily  battle  of  money-grubbing,  with  a 
kind  of  sad-eyed  loyalty  like  a  martyr's ;  rose  early,  ate 
fast,  came  home  dispirited  and  over-weary,  even  from 
success ;  grudged  himself  all  pleasure,  if  his  nature  was 
capable  of  taking  any,  which  I  sometimes  wondered ; 
and  laid  out,  upon  some  deal  in  wheat  or  corner  in 
aluminium,  the  essence  of  which  was  little  better  than 
highway  robbery,  treasures  of  conscientiousness  and  self- 
denial. 

17 


18  THE    WIIECKER. 

Unluckily,  I  never  cared  a  cent  for  anything  but  art, 
and  never  shall.  My  idea  of  man's  chief  end  was  to 
enrich  the  world  with  things  of  beauty,  and  have  a 
fairly  good  time  myself  while  doing  so.  I  do  not  think 
I  mentioned  that  second  part,  which  is  the  only  one  I 
have  managed  to  carry  out;  but  my  father  must  have 
suspected  the  suppression,  for  he  branded  the  whole 
affair  as  self-indulgence. 

"Well,"  I  remember  crying  once,  "and  what  is  your 
life  ?  You  are  only  trying  to  get  money,  and  to  get  it 
from  other  people  at  that." 

He  sighed  bitterly  (which  was  very  much  his  habit), 
and  shook  his  poor  head  at  me.  "Ah,  Loudon,  Loudon  !" 
said  he,  "you  boys  think  yourselves  very  smart.  But, 
struggle  as  you  please,  a  man  has  to  work  in  this  world. 
He  must  be  an  honest  man  or  a  thief,  Loudon." 

You  can  see  for  yourself  how  vain  it  was  to  argue 
with  my  father.  The  despair  that  seized  upon  me  after 
such  an  interview  was,  besides,  embittered  by  remorse ; 
for  I  was  at  times  petulant,  but  he  invariably  gentle ; 
and  I  was  fighting,  after  all,  for  my  own  liberty  and 
pleasure,  he  singly  for  what  he  thought  to  be  my  good. 
And  all  the  time  he  never  despaired.  "  There  is  good 
stuff  in  you,  Loudon,"  he  would  say ;  "  there  is  the  right 
stuff  in  you.  Blood  will  tell,  and  you  will  come  right  in 
time.  I  am  not  afraid  my  boy  will  ever  disgrace  me ;  I 
am  only  vexed  he  should  sometimes  talk  nonsense," 
And  then  he  would  pat  my  shoulder  or  my  hand  with  a 


A   SOUND   COMMERCIAL   EDUCATION.  19 

kind  of  motherly  way  he  had,  yery  affecting  in  a  man 
so  strong  and  beautiful. 

As  soon  as  I  had  graduated  from  the  high  school,  he 
packed  me  off  to  the  Muskegon  Commercial  Academy. 
You  are  a  foreigner,  and  you  will  have  a  difficulty  in 
accepting  the  reality  of  this  seat  of  education,  I  assure 
you  before  I  begin  that  I  am  wholly  serious.  The  place 
really  existed,  possibly  exists  to-day :  we  were  proud  of 
it  in  the  State,  as  something  exceptionally  nineteenth 
century  and  civilized ;  and  my  father,  when  he  saw  me 
to  the  cars,  no  doubt  considered  he  was  putting  me  in  a 
straight  line  for  the  Presidency  and  the  New  Jerusalem. 

"Loudon,"  said  he,  "I  am  now  giving  j^ou  a  chance 
that  Julius  Caesar  could  not  have  given  to  his  son  —  a 
chance  to  see  life  as  it  is,  before  your  own  turn  comes 
to  start  in  earnest.  Avoid  rash  speculation,  try  to  be- 
have like  a  gentleman ;  and  if  you  will  take  my  advice, 
confine  yourself  to  a  safe,  conservative  business  in  rail- 
roads. Breadstuffs  are  tempting,  but  very  dangerous ;  I 
would  not  try  breadstuffs  at  your  time  of  life ;  but  you 
may  feel  your  way  a  little  in  other  commodities.  Take 
a  pride  to  keep  your  books  posted,  and  never  throw  good 
money  after  bad.  There,  my  dear  boy,  kiss  me  good-by ; 
and  never  forget  that  you  are  an  only  chick,  and  that 
your  dad  watches  your  career  with  fond  suspense." 

The  commercial  college  was  a  fine,  roomy  establish- 
ment, pleasantly  situate  among  woods.     The   air  was 


20  THE   WRECKER. 

healthy,  the  food  excellent,  the  premium  high.  Electric 
wires  connected  it  (to  use  the  words  of  the  prospectus) 
with  "the  various  world  centres."  The  reading-room 
was  well  supplied  with  "commercial  organs."  The  talk 
was  that  of  Wall  Street ;  and  the  pupils  (from  fifty  to  a 
hundred  lads)  were  principally  engaged  in  rooking  or 
trying  to  rook  one  another  for  nominal  sums  in  what 
was  called  "  college  paper."  We  had  class  hours,  indeed, 
in  the  morning,  when  we  studied  German,  French,  book- 
keeping, and  the  like  goodly  matters;  but  the  bulk  of 
our  day  and  the  gist  of  the  education  centred  in  the 
exchange,  where  we  were  taught  to  gamble  in  produce 
and  securities.  Since  not  one  of  the  participants  pos- 
sessed a  bushel  of  wheat  or  a  dollar's  worth  of  stock, 
legitimate  business  was  of  course  impossible  from  the 
beginning.  It  was  cold-drawn  gambling,  without  colour 
or  disguise.  Just  that  which  is  the  impediment  and 
destruction  of  all  genuine  commercial  enterprise,  just 
that  we  were  taught  with  every  luxury  of  stage  effect. 
Our  simulacrum  of  a  market  was  ruled  by  the  real 
markets  outside,  so  that  we  might  experience  the  course 
and  vicissitude  of  prices.  We  must  keep  books,  and  our 
ledgers  were  overhauled  at  the  month's  end  by  the  prin- 
cipal or  his  assistants.  To  add  a  spice  of  verisimili- 
tude, "college  paper"  (like  poker  chips)  had  an  actual 
marketable  value.  It  was  bought  for  each  pupil  by 
anxious  parents  and  guardians  at  the  rate  of  one  cent 
for  the  dollar.     The  same  pupil,  when  his  education  was 


A   SOUND   COMMERCIAL   EDUCATION.  21 

complete,  resold,  at  the  same  figure,  so  much  as  was  left 
him  to  the  college;  and  even  in  the  midst  of  his  cur- 
riculum, a  successful  operator  would  sometimes  realize  a 
proportion  of  his  holding,  and  stand  a  supper  on  the 
sly  in  the  neighbouring  hamlet.  In  short,  if  there 
was  ever  a  worse  education,  it  must  have  been  in  that 
academy  where  Oliver  met  Charlie  Bates. 

When  I  was  first  guided  into  the  exchange  to  have 
my  desk  pointed  out  by  one  of  the  assistant  teachers,  I 
was  overwhelmed  by  the  clamour  and  confusion.  Cer- 
tain blackboards  at  the  other  end  of  the  building  were 
covered  with  figures  continually  replaced.  As  each  new 
set  appeared,  the  pupils  swayed  to  and  fro,  and  roared 
out  aloud  with  a  formidable  and  to  me  quite  meaningless 
vociferation;  leaping  at  the  same  time  upon  the  desks 
and  benches,  signalling  with  arms  and  heads,  and  scrib- 
bling briskly  in  note-books.  I  thought  I  had  never 
beheld  a  scene  more  disagreeable ;  and  when  I  considered 
that  the  whole  traffic  was  illusory,  and  all  the  money 
then  upon  the  market  would  scarce  have  sufficed  to  buy 
a  pair  of  skates,  I  was  at  first  astonished,  although  not 
for  long.  Indeed,  I  had  no  sooner  called  to  mind  how 
grown-up  men  and  women  of  considerable  estate  will 
lose  their  temper  about  half-penny  points,  than  (making 
an  immediate  allowance  for  my  fellow-students)  I  trans- 
ferred the  whole  of  my  astonishment  to  the  assistant 
teacher,  who  —  poor  gentleman  —  had  quite  forgot  to 
show  me  to  my  desk,  and  stood  in  the  midst  of  this 
hurly-burly,  absorbed  and  seemingly  transported. 


22  THE  WRECKER. 

"  Look,  look,"  he  shouted  in  my  ear ;  "  a  falling  mar« 
ket !  The  bears  have  had  it  all  their  own  way  since 
yesterday." 

"  It  can't  matter/'  I  replied,  making  him  hear  with 
difficulty,  for  I  was  unused  to  speak  in  such  a  babel, 
"since  it  is  all  fun." 

"  True,"  said  he ;  "  and  you  must  always  bear  in  mind 
that  the  real  profit  is  in  the  book-keeping.  I  trust, 
Dodd,  to  be  able  to  congratulate  you  upon  your  books. 
You  are  to  start  in  with  ten  thousand  dollars  of  college 
paper,  a  very  liberal  figure,  which  should  see  you  through 
the  whole  curriculum,  if  you  keep  to  a  safe,  conservative 
business  .  .  .  Why,  what's  that  ? "  he  broke  off,  once 
more  attracted  by  the  changing  figures  on  the  board. 
"  Seven,  iowv,  three !  Dodd,  you  are  in  luck :  tliis  is 
the  most  spirited  rally  we  have  had  this  term.  And  to 
think  that  the  same  scene  is  now  transpiring  in  New 
York,  Chicago,  St.  Louis,  and  rival  business  centres ! 
For  two  cents,  I  would  try  a  flutter  with  the  boys  my- 
self," he  cried,  rubbing  his  hands  ;  "  only  it's  against  the 
regulations." 

"  What  would  you  do,  sir  ?  "  I  asked. 

"  Do  ?  "  he  cried  with  glittering  eyes.  "  Buy  for  all 
X  was  worth  ! " 

"  Would  that  be  a  safe,  conservative  business  ?  "  I 
inquired,  as  innocent  as  a  lamb. 

He  looked  daggers  at  me.  "See  that  sandy-haired 
man  in  glasses  ?  "  he  asked,  as  if  to  change  the  subject 


A  SOUND  COMMERCIAL  EDUCATION.  23 

"That's  Billson,  our  most  prominent  undergraduate. 
We  build  confidently  on  Billson's  future.  You  could 
not  do  better,  Dodd,  than  follow  Billson." 

Presently  after,  in  tlie  midst  of  a  still  growing  tumult, 
the  figures  coming  and  going  more  busily  than  ever  ou 
tlie  board,  and  the  hall  resounding  like  Pandemonium 
with  the  howls  of  operators,  the  assistant  teacher  left 
me  to  my  own  resources  at  my  desk.  The  next  boy  was 
posting  up  his  ledger,  figuring  his  morning's  loss,  as  I 
discovered  later  on ;  and  from  this  ungenial  task  he  was 
readily  diverted  by  the  sight  of  a  new  face. 

"  Say,  Freshman,"  he  said,  "  what's  your  name  ? 
What  ?  Son  of  Big  Head  Dodd  ?  What's  your  figure  ? 
Ten  thousand  ?  0,  you're  aAvay  up !  What  a  soft- 
headed clam  you  must  be  to  touch  your  books ! " 

I  asked  him  what  else  I  could  do,  since  the  books 
were  to  be  examined  once  a  month. 

"  Why,  you  galoot,  you  get  a  clerk ! "  cries  he.  "  One 
of  our  dead  beats — that's  all  they're  here  for.  If  you're 
a  successful  operator,  you  need  never  do  a  stroke  of 
irvork  in  this  old  college." 

The  noise  had  now  become  deafening;  and  my  new 
friend,  telling  me  that  some  one  had  certainly  "  gone 
down,"  that  he  must  know  the  news,  and  that  he 
would  bring  me  a  clerk  when  he  returned,  buttoned 
his  coat  and  plunged  into  the  tossing  throng.  It 
proved  that  he  was  right :    some  one  had  gone  down ; 


24  THE  WRECKER. 

a  prince  had  fallen  in  Israel;  the  comer  in  lard  had 
proved  fatal  to  the  mighty ;  and  the  clerk  who  was 
brought  back  to  keep  my  books,  spare  me  all  work,  and 
get  all  my  share  of  the  education,  at  a  thousand  dollars 
a  month,  college  paper  (ten  dollars,  United  States  cur- 
rency) was  no  other  than  the  prominent  Billson  whom 
I  could  do  no  better  than  follow.  The  poor  lad  was 
very  unhappy.  It's  the  only  good  thing  I  have  to  say 
for  Muskegon  Commercial  College,  that  we  were  all, 
even  the  small  fry,  deeply  mortified  to  be  posted  as 
defaulters ;  and  the  collapse  of  a  merchant  prince  like 
Billson,  who  had  ridden  pretty  high  in  his  days  of 
prosperity,  was,  of  course,  particularly  hard  to  bear. 
But  the  spirit  of  make-believe  conquered  even  the  bitter- 
ness of  recent  shame ;  and  my  clerk  took  his  orders, 
and  fell  to  his  new  duties,  with  decorum  and  civility. 

Such  were  my  first  impressions  in  this  absurd  place 
of  education ;  and  to  be  frank,  they  were  far  from  dis- 
agreeable. As  long  as  I  was  rich,  my  evenings  and 
afternoons  would  be  my  own ;  the  clerk  must  keep  my 
books,  the  clerk  could  do  the  jostling  and  bawling  in 
the  exchange ;  and  I  could  turn  my  mind  to  landscape- 
painting  and  Balzac's  novels,  which  were  then  my  two 
preoccupations.  To  remain  rich,  then,  became  my  prob- 
lem ;  or,  in  other  words,  to  do  a  safe,  conservative  line 
of  business.  I  am  looking  for  that  line  still;  and  I 
believe  the  nearest  thing  to  it  in  this  imperfect  world  is 
the  sort  of  speculation  sometimes  insidiously  proposed 


A   SOUND   COMMERCIAL   EDUCATION.  25 

to  childhood,  in  the  formula,  "  Heads,  I  win ;  tails, 
you  lose."  Mindful  of  my  father's  parting  words,  I 
turned  my  attention  timidly  to  railroads ;  and  for  a 
month  or  so  maintained  a  position  of  inglorious  security, 
dealing  for  small  amounts  in  the  most  inert  stocks,  and 
bearing  (as  best  I  could)  the  scorn  of  my  hired  clerk. 
One  day  I  had  ventured  a  little  further  by  way  of  ex- 
periment ;  and,  in  the  sure  expectation  they  would  con- 
tinue to  go  down,  sold  several  thousand  dollars  of  Pan- 
Handle  Preference  (I  think  it  was).  I  had  no  sooner 
made  this  venture,  than  some  fools  in  New  York  began 
to  bull  the  market ;  Pan-Handles  rose  like  a  balloon ; 
and  in  the  inside  of  half  an  hour  I  saw  my  position 
compromised.  Blood  will  tell,  as  my  father  said ;  and  I 
stuck  to  it  gallantly :  all  afternoon  I  continued  selling 
that  infernal  stock,  all  afternoon  it  continued  skying. 
I  suppose  I  had  come  (a  frail  cockle-shell)  athwart  the 
hawse  of  Jay  Gould ;  and,  indeed,  I  think  I  remember 
that  this  vagary  in  the  market  proved  subsequently  to 
be  the  first  move  in  a  considerable  deal.  That  evenmg, 
at  least,  the  name  of  H.  Loudon  Dodd  held  the  first 
rank  in  our  collegiate  gazette,  and  I  and  Billson  (once 
more  thrown  upon  the  world)  were  competing  for  the 
same  clerkship.  The  present  object  takes  the  present 
eye.  My  disaster,  for  the  moment,  was  the  more  con- 
spicuous ;  and  it  was  I  that  got  the  situation.  So  you 
see,  even  in  Muskegon  Commercial  College,  there  were 
lessons  to  be  learned. 


26  THE   WRECKER. 

For  my  own  part,  I  cared  very  little  "whetlier  I  lost  or 
won  at  a  game  so  random,  so  complex,  and  so  dull ;  but 
it  was  sorry  news  to  write  to  my  poor  father,  and  I 
employed  all  the  resources  of  my  eloquence.  I  told  him 
(what  was  the  truth)  that  the  successful  boys  had  none 
of  the  education;  so  that  if  he  wished  me  to  learn,  lu 
should  rejoice  at  my  misfortune.  I  went  on  (not  very 
consistently)  to  beg  him  to  set  me  up  again,  when  I 
would  solemnly  promise  to  do  a  safe  business  in  reliable 
railroads.  Lastly  (becoming  somewhat  carried  away), 
I  assured  him  I  was  totally  unfit  for  business,  and 
implored  him  to  take  me  away  from  this  abominable 
place,  and  let  me  go  to  Paris  to  study  art.  He  answered 
briefly,  gently,  and  sadly,  telling  me  the  vacation  was 
near  at  hand,  when  we  would  talk  things,  over. 

When  the  time  came,  he  met  me  at  the  depot,  and  I 
was  shocked  to  see  him  looking  older.  He  seemed  to 
have  no  thought  but  to  console  me  and  restore  (what  he 
supposed  I  had  lost)  my  courage.  I  must  not  be  down- 
hearted ;  many  of  the  best  men  had  made  a  failure  in  the 
beginning.  I  told  him  I  had  no  head  for  business,  and 
his  kind  face  darkened.  "  You  must  not  say  that, 
Loudon,"  he  replied  ;  "  I  will  never  believe  my  son  to  be 
a  coward." 

''  But  I  don't  like  it,"  I  pleaded.  "  It  hasn't  got  any 
interest  for  me,  and  art  has.  I  know  I  could  do  more  in 
art,"  and  I  reminded  him  that  a  successful  painter  gains 
large  sums ;  that  a  picture  of  Meissonier's  would  sell  for 
many  thousand  dollars. 


A   SOUND   COMMERCIAL   EDUCATION.  27 

"And  do  you  think,  Loudon,"  lie  replied,  "that  a  man 
who  can  paint  a  thousand  dollar  picture  has  not  grit 
enough  to  keep  his  end  up  in  the  stock  market  ?  ISTo,  sir ; 
this  Mason  (of  whom  you  speak)  or  our  own  American 
Bierstadt  —  if  you  were  to  put  them  down  in  a  wheat  pit 
to-morrow,  they  would  show  their  mettle.  Come,  Loudon, 
my  dear ;  Heaven  knows  I  have  no  thought  but  your  own 
good,  and  I  will  offer  you  a  bargain.  I  start  you  again 
next  term  with  ten  thousand  dollars ;  show  yourself  a 
man,  and  double  it,  and  then  (if  you  still  wish  to  go  to 
Paris,  which  I  know  you  won't)  I'll  let  you  go.  But  to 
let  you  run  away  as  if  you  were  whipped,  is  what  I  am 
too  proud  to  do." 

My  heart  leaped  at  this  proposal,  and  then  sank  again. 
It  seemed  easier  to  paint  a  Meissonier  on  the  spot  than 
to  win  ten  thousand  dollars  on  that  mimic  stock  ex- 
change. 'Nov  could  I  help  reflecting  on  the  singularity 
of  such  a  test  for  a  man's  capacity  to  be  a  painter.  I 
ventured  even  to  comment  on  this. 

He  sighed  deeply.  "You  forget,  my  dear,"  said  he, 
"  I  am  a  judge  of  the  one,  and  not  of  the  other.  You 
might  have  the  genius  of  Bierstadt  himself,  and  I  would 
be  none  the  wiser." 

"  And  then,"  I  continued,  "  it's  scarcely  fair.  The  other 
boys  are  helped  by  their  people,  who  telegraph  and  give 
them  pointers.  There's  Jim  Costello,  who  never  budges 
without  a  word  from  his  father  in  New  York.  And  then, 
don't  you  see,  if  anybody  is  to  win,  somebody  must 
lose  ?  " 


28  THE   WRECKER. 

"  I'll  keep  you  posted,"  cried  my  father,  witli  unusual 
animation ;  "  I  did  not  know  it  was  allowed.  I'll  wire  you 
in  tke  office  cipher,  and  we'll  make  it  a  kind  of  partner- 
ship business,  Loudon :  —  Dodd  &  Son,  eh  ?  "  and  he 
■natted  my  shoulder  and  repeated,  "  Dodd  &  Son,  Dodd  & 
Son,"  with  the  kindliest  amusement. 

If  my  father  was  to  give  me  pointers,  and  the  commer- 
cial college  was  to  be  a  stepping-stone  to  Paris,  I  could 
look  my  future  in  the  face.  The  old  boy,  too,  was  so 
pleased  at  the  idea  of  our  association  in  this  foolery  that 
he  immediately  plucked  up  spirit.  Thus  it  befell  that 
those  who  had  met  at  the  depot  like  a  pair  of  mutes,  sat 
down  to  table  with  holiday  faces. 

And  now  I  have  to  introduce  a  new  character  that 
never  said  a  word  nor  wagged  a  finger,  and  yet  shaped 
my  whole  subsequent  career.  You  have  crossed  the 
States,  so  that  in  all  likelihood  you  have  scan  the  head 
of  it,  parcel-gilt  and  curiously  fluted,  rising  among  trees 
from  a  wide  plain ;  for  this  new  character  was  no  other 
than  the  State  capitol  of  Muskegon,  then  first  projected. 
My  father  had  embraced  the  idea  with  a  mixture  of  patri- 
otism and  commercial  greed  both  perfectly  genuine.  He 
was  of  all  the  committees,  he  had  subscribed  a  great 
deal  of  money,  and  he  was  making  arrangements  to  have 
a  finger  in  most  of  the  contracts.  Competitive  plans  had 
been  sent  in ;  at  the  time  of  my  return  from  college  my 
father  was  deep  in  their  consideration  ;  and  as  the  idea 
entirely  occupied  his  mind,  the  first  evening  did  not  pass 


A  SOUND   COMMERCIAL   EDUCATION.  29 

away  before  he  had  called  me  into  council.  Here  was  a 
subject  at  last  into  which  I  could  thi-ow  myself  with 
pleasurable  zeal.  Architecture  was  new  to  me,  indeed ; 
but  it  was  at  least  an  art ;  and  for  all  the  arts  I  had  a 
taste  naturally  classical  and  that  capacity  to  take  de- 
lighted pains  which  some  famous  idiot  has  supposed  to 
be  synonymous  with  genius.  I  threw  myself  headlong 
into  my  father's  work,  acquainted  myself  with  all  the 
plans,  their  merits  and  defects,  read  besides  in  special 
books,  made  myself  a  master  of  the  theory  of  strains, 
studied  the  current  prices  of  materials,  and  (in  one  word) 
"  devilled  "  the  whole  business  so  thoroughly,  that  when 
the  plans  came  up  for  consideration.  Big  Head  Dodd  was 
supposed  to  have  earned  fresh  laurels.  His  arguments 
carried  the  day,  his  choice  was  approved  by  the  commit- 
tee, and  I  had  the  anonymous  satisfaction  to  know  that 
arguments  and  choice  were  wholly  mine.  In  the  recast- 
ing of  the  plan  which  followed,  my  part  was  even  larger ; 
for  I  designed  and  cast  with  my  own  hand  a  hot-air 
grating  for  the  offices,  which  had  the  luck  or  merit  to  be 
accepted.  The  energy  and  aptitude  which  I  displayed 
throughout  delighted  and  surprised  my  father,  and  I 
believe,  although  I  say  it  whose  tongue  should  be  tied^ 
that  they  alone  prevented  Muskegon  capitol  from  being 
the  eyesore  of  my  native  State. 

Altogether,  I  was  in  a  cheery  frame  of  mind  when  I 
returned  to  the  commercial  college ;  and  my  earlier 
operations  were  crowned  with  a  full  measure  of  success. 


30  THE    WKECKER. 

My  father  wrote  and  wired  to  me  continually.  "You 
are  to  exercise  your  own  judgment,  Loudon,"  lie  would 
say.  "  All  that  I  do  is  to  give  you  the  figures ;  but 
whatever  operation  you  take  up  must  be  upon  your 
own  responsibility,  and  whatever  you  earn  will  be  en- 
tirely due  to  your  own  dash  and  forethought."  For  all 
that,  it  was  always  clear  what  he  intended  me  to  do, 
and  I  was  always  careful  to  do  it.  Inside  of  a  month 
I  was  at  the  head  of  seventeen  or  eighteen  thousand 
dollars,  college  paper.  And  here  I  fell  a  victim  to  one 
of  the  vices  of  the  system.  The  paper  (I  have  already 
explained)  had  a  real  value  of  one  per  cent;  and  cost, 
and  could  be  sold,  for  currency.  Unsuccessful  specula- 
tors were  thus  always  selling  clothes,  books,  banjos,  and 
sleeve-links,  in  order  to  pay  their  differences ;  the  suc- 
cessful, on  the  other  hand,  were  often  tempted  to  real- 
ise, and  enjoy  some  return  upon  their  profits.  Now 
I  wanted  thirty  dollars'  worth  of  artist-truck,  for  I  was 
always  sketching  in  the  woods;  my  allowance  was  for 
the  time  exhausted ;  I  had  begun  to  regard  the  exchange 
(with  my  father's  help)  as  a  place  where  money  was  to 
be  got  for  stooping ;  and  in  an  evil  hour  I  realised  three 
thousand  dollars  of  the  college  paper  and  bought  my 
easel. 

It  was  a  Wednesday  morning  when  the  things  arrived, 
and  set  me  in  the  seventh  heaven  of  satisfaction.  My 
father  (for  I  can  scarcely  say  myself)  was  trying  at  this 
time  a  "  straddle "  in  wheat  between  Chicago  and  New 


A  SOUND   COMMERCIAL  EDUCATION.  31 

York;  the  operation  so  called  is,  as  you  know,  one  of 
the  most  tempting  and  least  safe  upon  the  chess-board 
of  finance.  On  the  Thursday,  luck  began  to  turn  against 
my  father's  calculations ;  and  by  the  Friday  evening,  I 
was  posted  on  the  boards  as  a  defaulter  for  the  second 
time.  Here  was  a  rude  blow:  my  father  would  have 
taken  it  ill  enough  iu  any  case ;  for  however  much  a  man 
may  resent  the  incapacity  of  an  only  son,  he  will  feel 
his  own  more  sensibly.  But  it  chanced  that,  in  our 
bitter  cup  of  failure,  there  was  one  ingredient  that 
might  truly  be  called  poisonous.  He  had  been  keeping 
the  run  of  my  position;  he  missed  the  three  thousand 
dollars,  paper;  and  in  his  view,  I  had  stolen  thirty 
dollars,  currency.  It  was  an  extreme  view  perhaps ;  but 
in  some  senses,  it  was  just ;  and  my  father,  although  (to 
my  judgment)  quite  reckless  of  honesty  in  the  essence 
of  his  operations,  was  the  soul  of  honor  as  to  their 
details.  I  had  one  grieved  letter  from  him,  dignified 
and  tender ;  and  during  the  rest  of  that  wretched  term, 
working  as  a  clerk,  selling  my  clothes  and  sketches 
to  make  futile  speculations,  my  dream  of  Paris  quite 
vanished,  I  was  cheered  by  no  word  of  kindness  and 
helped  by  no  hint  of  counsel  from  my  father. 

All  the  time  he  was  no  doubt  thinking  of  little  else 
but  his  son,  and  what  to  do  with  him.  I  believe  he 
had  been  really  appalled  by  what  he  regarded  as  my 
laxity  of  principle,  and  began  to  think  it  might  be  well 
to  preserve  me  from  temptation;   the  architect  of  the 


32  THE   WRECKER. 

capitol  had,  besides,  spoken  obligingly  of  my  design; 
and  while  he  was  thus  hanging  between  two  minds,  For- 
tune suddenly  stepped  in,  and  Muskegon  State  capitol 
reversed  my  destiny. 

"  Loudon,"  said  my  father,  as  he  met  me  at  the  depot., 
with  a  smiling  countenance,  "  if  you  were  to  go  to  Paris, 
how  long  would  it  take  you  to  become  an  experienced 
sculptor  ? " 

"  How  do  you  mean,  father  ?  "  I  cried.  "  Experi- 
enced ?  " 

"A  man  that  could  be  entrusted  with  the  highest 
styles,"  he  answered :  "  the  nude,  for  instance ;  and  the 
patriotic  and  emblematical  styles." 

"It  might  take  three  years,"  I  replied. 

"You  think  Paris  necessary?"  he  asked.  "There 
are  great  advantages  in  our  own  country ;  and  that  man 
Prodgers  appears  to  be  a  very  clever  sculptor,  though  I 
suppose  he  stands  too  high  to  go  around  giving  lessons." 

"Paris  is  the  only  place,"  I  assured  him. 

"Well,  I  think  myself  it  will  sound  better,"  he  ad- 
mitted. "  A  Young  Man,  a  Native  of  this  State,  Son  of 
a  Leading  Citizen,  Studies  Prosecuted  under  the  Most 
Experienced  Masters  in  Paris,"  he  added,  relishingly. 

"But,  my  dear  dad,  what  is  it  all  about?"  I  inter- 
rupted.    "I  never  even  dreamed  of  being  a  sculptor." 

"  Well,  here  it  is,"  said  he.  "  I  took  up  the  statuary 
contract  on  our  new  capitol ;  I  took  it  up  at  first  as  a 
deal ;  and  then  it  occurred  to  me  it  would  be  better  to 


ROUSSILLON   WINE.  33 

keep  it  in  the  family.  It  meets  your  idea ;  there's  con- 
siderable  money  in  the  thing ;  and  it's  patriotic.  So,  if 
you  say  the  word,  you  shall  go  to  Paris,  and  come  back 
in  three  years  to  decorate  the  capitol  of  your  native 
State.  It's  a  big  chance  for  you,  Loudon ;  and  I'll  tell 
you  what — every  dollar  you  earn,  I'll  put  another  along 
side  of  it.  But  the  sooner  you  go,  and  the  harder  you 
work,  the  better ;  for  if  the  first  half-dozen  statues  aren't 
on  a  line  with  public  taste  in  Muskegon,  there  wiU  be 
trouble." 


CHAPTER  II. 


ROUSSILLON    WINE. 


My  mother's  family  was  Scotch,  and  it  was  judged  fit- 
ting I  should  pay  a  visit  on  my  way  Paris-ward,  to  my 
Uncle  Adam  Loudon,  a  wealthy  retired  grocer  of  Edin- 
burgh. He  was  very  stiff  and  very  ironical ;  he  fed  me 
well,  lodged  me  sumptuously,  and  seemed  to  take  it  out 
of  me  all  the  time,  cent  per  cent,  in  secret  entertainment 
which  caused  his  spectacles  to  glitter  and  his  mouth  to 
twitch.  The  ground  of  this  ill-suppressed  mirth  (as 
well  as  I  could  make  out)  was  simply  the  fact  that  I 
was  an  American.  "  Well,"  he  would  say,  drawing  out 
the  word  to  infinity,  "and  I  suppose  now  in  your  coun- 
try, things  will  be  so  and  so."     And  the  whole  group 


34  THE   WRECKER. 

of  my  cousins  would  titter  joyously.  Eepeated  recep- 
tions of  this  sort  must  be  at  the  root,  I  suppose,  of  what 
they  call  the  Great  American  Jest ;  and  I  know  I  was 
myself  goaded  into  saying  that  my  friends  went  naked 
in  the  summer  months,  and  that  the  Second  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church  in  Muskegon  was  decorated  with 
scalps.  I  cannot  say  that  these  flights  had  any  great 
success ;  they  seemed  to  awaken  little  more  surprise  than 
the  fact  that  my  father  was  a  Republican  or  that  I  had 
been  taught  in  school  to  spell  colour  without  the  xi.  If 
I  had  told  them  (what  was  after  all  the  truth)  that  my 
father  had  paid  a  considerable  annual  sum  to  have  me 
brought  up  in  a  gambling  hell,  the  tittering  and  grinning 
of  this  dreadful  family  might  perhaps  have  been  excused. 

I  cannot  deny  but  I  was  sometimes  tempted  to  knock 
my  Uncle  Adam  down;  and  indeed  I  believe  it  must 
have  come  to  a  rupture  at  last,  if  they  had  not  given  a 
dinner  party  at  which  I  was  the  lion.  On  this  occasion,  I 
learned  (to  my  surprise  and  relief)  that  the  incivility  to 
which  I  had  been  subjected  was  a  matter  for  the  family 
circle  and  might  be  regarded  almost  in  the  light  of  an 
endearment.  To  strangers,  I  was  presented  with  con- 
sideration ;  and  the  account  given  of  "  my  American 
brother-in-law,  poor  Janie's  man,  James  K.  Dodd,  the 
well-known  millionnaire  of  Muskegon,"  was  calculated 
to  enlarge  the  heart  of  a  proud  son. 

An  aged  assistant  of  my  grandfather's,  a  pleasant, 
humble  creature  with  a  taste  for  whiskey,  was  at  first 


ROUSSILLON   WINE.  35 

deputed  to  be  my  guide  about  the  city.  With  this  harm- 
less but  hardly  aristocratic  companion,  I  went  to  Arthur's 
Seat  and  the  Calton  Hill,  heard  the  band  play  in  the 
Princes  Street  Gardens,  inspected  the  regalia  and  the 
blood  of  Eizzio,  and  fell  in  love  with  the  great  castle  on 
its  cliff,  the  innumerable  spires  of  churches,  the  stately 
buildings,  the  broad  prospects,  and  those  narrow  and 
crowded  lanes  of  the  old  town  where  my  ancestors  had 
lived  and  died  in  the  days  before  Columbus. 

But  there  was  another  curiosity  that  interested  me 
more  deeply  —  my  grandfather,  Alexander  Loudon.  In 
his  time,  the  old  gentleman  had  been  a  working  mason, 
and  had  risen  from  the  ranks  more,  I  think,  by  shrewd- 
ness than  by  merit.  In  his  appearance,  speech,  and  man- 
ners, he  bore  broad  marks  of  his  origin,  which  were  gall 
and  wormwood  to  my  Uncle  Adam.  His  nails,  in  spite 
of  anxious  supervision,  were  often  in  conspicuous  mourn- 
ing; his  clothes  hung  about  him  in  bags  and  wrinkles 
like  a  ploughman's  Sunday  coat;  his  accent  was  rude, 
broad,  and  dragging :  take  him  at  his  best,  and  even  when 
he  could  be  induced  to  hold  his  tongue,  his  mere  pres- 
ence in  a  corner  of  the  drawing-room,  with  his  open-air 
wrinkles,  his  scanty  hair,  his  battered  hands,  and  the 
cheerftd  craftiness  of  his  expression,  advertised  the 
whole  gang  of  us  for  a  self-made  family.  My  aunt 
might  mince  and  my  cousins  bridle ;  but  there  was  no 
getting  over  the  solid,  physical  fact  of  the  stonemason 
in  the  chimney-corner. 


36  THE   AVIIECKER. 

That  is  one  advantage  of  being  an  American :  it  never 
occurred  to  me  to  be  ashamed  of  my  grandfather,  and  the 
old  gentleman  was  quick  to  mark  the  difference.  He 
held  my  mother  in  tender  memory,  perhaps  because  he 
was  in  the  habit  of  daily  contrasting  her  with  Undo 
Adam,  whom  he  detested  to  the  point  of  frenzy ;  and 
he  set  down  to  inheritance  from  his  favourite  my  own 
becoming  treatment  of  himself.  On  our  walks  abroad, 
which  soon  became  daily,  he  would  sometimes  (after 
duly  warning  me  to  keep  the  matter  dark  from  "  Aadam  ") 
skulk  into  some  old  familiar  pot-house  ;  and  there  (if  he 
had  the  luck  to  encounter  any  of  his  veteran  cronies) 
he  would  present  me  to  the  company  with  manifest 
pride,  casting  at  the  same  time  a  covert  slur  on  the  rest 
of  his  descendants.  "This  is  my  Jeannie's  yin,"  he 
would  say,  "  He's  a  fine  fallow,  him."  The  purpose  of 
our  excursions  was  not  to  seek  antiquities  or  to  enjoy 
famous  prospects,  but  to  visit  one  after  another  a  series 
of  doleful  suburbs,  for  which  it  was  the  old  gentleman's 
chief  claim  to  renown  that  he  had  been  the  sole  con- 
tractor, and  too  often  the  architect  besides.  I  have 
rarely  seen  a  more  shocking  exhibition :  the  bricks 
seemed  to  be  blushing  in  the  walls,  and  the  slates  on  the 
roof  to  have  turned  pale  with  shame  ;  but  I  was  careful 
not  to  communicate  these  impressions  to  the  aged  artif- 
icer at  my  side ;  and  when  he  would  direct  my  attention 
to  some  fresh  monstrosity  —  perhaps  with  the -comment, 
"  There's  an  idee  of  mine's  :  it's  cheap  and  tasty,  and  had 


EOUSSILLON   WINE.  37 

a  graand  run ;  the  idee  was  soon  stole,  and  there's  whole 
deestricts  near  Glesgie  with  the  goathic  adeetion  and 
that  plunth,"  —  I  would  civilly  make  haste  to  admire  and 
(what  I  found  particularly  delighted  him)  to  inquire  into 
the  cost  of  each  adornment.  It  will  be  conceived  that 
Muskegon  capitol  was  a  frequent  and  a  welcome  ground 
of  talk ;  I  drew  him  all  the  plans  from  memory ;  and  he, 
with  the  aid  of  a  narrow  volume  full  of  figures  and 
tables,  which  answered  (I  believe)  to  the  name  of  Moles- 
worth,  and  was  his  constant  pocket  companion,  would 
draw  up  rough  estimates  and  make  imaginary  offers  on 
the  various  contracts.  Our  Muskegon  builders  he  pro- 
nounced a  pack  of  cormorants ;  and  the  congenial  sub- 
ject, together  with  my  knowledge  of  architectural  terms, 
the  theory  of  strains,  and  the  prices  of  materials  in  the 
States,  formed  a  strong  bond  of  union  between  what 
might  have  been  otherwise  an  ill-assorted  pair,  and  led 
my  grandfather  to  pronounce  me,  with  emphasis,  "  a  real 
intalligent  kind  of  a  cheild."  Thus  a  second  time,  as 
you  will  presently  see,  the  capitol  of  my  native  State  had 
influentially  affected  the  current  of  my  life. 

I  left  Edinburgh,  however,  with  not  the  least  idea  that 
I  had  done  a  stroke  of  excellent  business  for  myself, 
and  singly  delighted  to  escape  out  of  a  somewhat  dreary 
house  and  plunge  instead  into  the  rainbow  city  of  Paris. 
Every  man  has  his  own  romance ;  mine  clustered  exclu- 
sively about  the  practice  of  the  arts,  the  life  of  Latin 
Quarter  students,  and  the  world  of  Paris  as  depicted  by 


38  THE   "WRECKER. 

that  grimy  wizard,  the  author  of  the  ComMie  Humaine. 
I  was  not  disappointed  —  I  could  not  have  been ;  for  I  did 
not  see  the  facts,  I  brought  them  with  me  ready-made. 
Z.  Marcas  lived  next  door  to  me  in  my  ungainly,  ill- 
smelling  hotel  of  the  Rue  Racine  ;  I  dined  at  my  villain- 
ous restaurant  with  Lousteau  and  with  Rastignac :  if  a 
curricle  nearly  ran  me  down  at  a  street-crossing.  Maxima 
de  Trailles  would  be  the  driver.  I  dined,  I  say,  at  a  poor 
restaurant  and  lived  in  a  poor  hotel ;.  and  this  was  not 
from  need,  but  sentiment.  My  father  gave  me  a  profuse 
allowance,  and  I  might  have  lived  (had  I  chosen)  in 
the  Quartier  de  I'Etoile  and  driven  to  my  studies  daily. 
Had  I  done  so,  the  glamour  must  have  fled:  I  should 
still  have  been  but  Loudon  Dodd ;  whereas  now  I  was 
a  Latin  Quarter  student,  Murger's  successor,  living  iu 
flesh  and  blood  the  life  of  one  of  those  romances  I  had 
loved  to  read,  to  re-read,  and  to  dream  over,  among  the 
woods  of  Muskegon. 

At  this  time  we  were  all  a  little  Murger-mad  in  the 
Latin  Quarter.  The  play  of  the  Vie  de  BoMme  (a  dreary, 
snivelling  piece)  had  been  produced  at  the  Od^on,  had 
run  an  unconscionable  time  —  for  Paris,  and  revived  the 
freshness  of  the  legend.  The  same  business,  you  may 
say,  or  there  and  thereabout,  was  being  privately  enacted 
in  consequence  in  every  garret  of  the  neighbourhood,  and 
a  good  third  of  the  students  were  consciously  imperson- 
ating Rodolphe  or  Schaunard  to  their  own  incommunica- 
ble satisfaction.     Some  of  us  went  far,  and  some  farther, 


ROUSSILLON   WINE.  89 

I  always  looked  with  awful  envy  (for  instance)  on  a 
certain  countryman  of  my  own,  who  had  a  studio  in  the 
Eue  Monsieur  le  Prince,  wore  boots,  and  long  hair  in  a 
net,  and  could  be  seen  tramping  off,  in  this  guise,  to  the 
worst  eating-house  of  the  quarter,  followed  by  a  Corsi- 
can  model,  his  mistress,  in  the  conspicuous  costume  of 
her  race  and  calling.  It  takes  some  greatness  of  soul 
to  carry  even  folly  to  such  heights  as  these  ;  and  for  my 
own  part,  I  had  to  content  myself  by  pretending  very 
arduously  to  be  poor,  by  wearing  a  smoking-cap  on  the 
streets,  and  by  pursuing,  through  a  series  of  misad- 
ventures, that  extiuct  mammal,  the  grisette.  The  most 
grievous  part  was  the  eating  and  the  drinking.  I  was 
born  with  a  dainty  tooth  and  a  palate  for  wine;  and 
only  a  genuine  devotion  to  romance  could  have  supported 
me  under  the  cat-civets  that  I  had  to  swallow,  and  the 
red  ink  of  Bercy  I  must  wash  them  down  withal.  Every 
now  and  again,  after  a  hard  day  at  the  studio,  where  I  was 
steadily  and  far  from  unsuccessfully  industrious,  a  wave 
of  distaste  would  overbear  me  ;  I  would  slink  away  from 
my  haunts  and  companions,  indemnify  myself  for  weeks 
of  self-denial  with  fine  wines  and  dainty  dishes ;  seated 
perhaps  on  a  terrace,  perhaps  in  an  arbour  in  a  garden, 
with  a  volume  of  one  of  my  favorite  authors  propped 
open  in  front  of  me,  and  now  consulted  awhile,  and  now 
forgotten :  —  so  remain,  relishing  my  situation,  till  night 
fell  and  the  lights  of  the  city  kindled ;  and  thence  stroll 
homeward  by  the  riverside,  under  the  moon  or  stars,  in 
a  heaven  of  poetry  and  digestion. 


40  THE   WRECKER. 

One  such  indulgence  led  me  in  the  course  of  my 
second  year  into  an  adventure  which  I  must  relate: 
indeed,  it  is  the  very  point  I  have  been  aiming  for,  since 
that  was  what  brought  me  in  acquaintance  with  Jim 
Pinkerton.  I  sat  down  alone  to  dinner  one  October  day 
when  the  rusty  leaves  were  falling  and  scuttling  on  the 
boulevard,  and  the  minds  of  impressionable  men  inclined 
in  about  an  equal  degree  towards  sadness  and  convivial- 
ity. The  restaurant  was  no  great  place,  but  boasted  a 
considerable  cellar  and  a  long  printed  list  of  vintages. 
This  I  was  perusing  with  the  double  zest  of  a  man 
who  is  fond  of  wine  and  a  lover  of  beautiful  names, 
when  my  eye  fell  (near  the  end  of  the  card)  on  that  not 
very  famous  or  familiar  brand,  Eoussillon.  I  remem- 
bered it  was  a  wine  I  had  never  tasted,  ordered  a  bottle, 
found  it  excellent,  and  when  I  had  discussed  the  con- 
tents, called  (according  to  my  habit)  for  a  final  pint.  It 
appears  they  did  not  keep  Eoussillon  in  half-bottles. 
"All  right,"  said  I.  " Another  bottle."  The  tables  at 
this  eating-house  are  close  together ;  and  the  next  thing 
I  can  remember,  I  was  in  somewhat  loud  conversation 
with  my  nearest  neighbours.  From  these  I  must  have 
gradually  extended  my  attentions ;  for  I  have  a  clear 
recollection  of  gazing  about  a  room  in  which  every  chair 
was  half  turned  round  and  every  face  turned  smilingly  to 
mine.  I  can  even  remember  what  I  was  saying  at  the 
moment ;  but  after  twenty  years,  the  embers  of  shame 
are  still  alive ;  and  I  prefer  to  give  your  imagination  the 


KGUSSILLON   WINE.  41 

cue,  by  simply  mentioning  that  my  mnse  was  the  patri- 
otic. It  had  been  my  design  to  adjourn  for  coffee  in  the 
company  of  some  of  these  new  friends ;  but  I  was  no 
sooner  on  the  sidewalk  than  I  found  myself  unaccount- 
ably alone.  The  circumstance  scarce  surprised  me  at 
the  time,  much  less  now ;  but  I  was  somewhat  chagrined 
a  little  after  to  find  I  had  walked  into  a  kiosque.  I 
began  to  wonder  if  I  were  any  the  worse  for  my  last 
bottle,  and  decided  to  steady  myself  with  coffee  and 
brandy.  In  the  Cafe  de  la  Source,  where  I  went  for  this 
restorative,  the  fountain  was  playing,  and  (what  greatly 
surprised  me)  the  mill  and  the  various  mechanical 
figures  on  the  rockery  appeared  to  have  been  freshly 
repaired  and  performed  the  most  enchanting  antics. 
The  cafe  was  extraordinarily  hot  and  bright,  with  every 
detail  of  a  conspicuous  clearness,  from  the  faces  of  the 
guests  to  the  type  of  the  newspapers  on  the  tables,  and 
the  whole  apartment  swang  to  and  fro  like  a  hammock, 
with  an  exhilarating  motion.  For  some  while  I  was  so 
extremely  pleased  with  these  particulars  that  I  thought 
I  could  never  be  weary  of  beholding  them  :  then  dropped 
of  a  sudden  into  a  causeless  sadness  ;  and  then,  with  the 
same  swiftness  and  spontaneity,  arrived  at  the  conclu- 
sion that  I  was  drmik  and  had  better  get  to  bed. 

It  was  but  a  step  or  two  to  my  hotel,  where  I  got  my 
lighted  candle  from  the  porter  and  mounted  the  four 
flights  to  my  own  room.  Although  I  could  not  deny 
that  I  was  drunk,  I  was  at  the  same  time  lucidly  rational 


42  THE   WRECKER. 

and  practical.  I  had  but  one  preoccupation  —  to  be  up  in 
time  on  the  morrow  for  my  work ;  and  when  I  observed 
the  clock  on  my  chimney-piece  to  have  stopped,  I  decided 
to  go  down  stairs  again  and  give  directions  to  the  porter. 
Leaving  the  candle  burning  and  my  door  open,  to  be  a 
guide  to  me  on  my  return,  I  set  forth  accordingly.  The 
house  was  quite  dark ;  but  as  there  were  only  the  three 
doors  on  each  landing,  it  was  impossible  to  wander,  and 
I  had  nothing  to  do  but  descend  the  stairs  until  I  saw 
the  glimmer  of  the  porter's  night  light.  I  counted  four 
flights  :  no  porter.  It  was  possible,  of  course,  that  I  had 
reckoned  incorrectly;  so  I  went  down  another  and  an- 
other, and  another,  still  counting  as  I  went,  until  I  had 
reached  the  preposterous  figure  of  nine  flights.  It  was 
now  quite  clear  that  I  had  somehow  passed  the  porter's 
lodge  without  remarking  it ;  indeed,  I  was,  at  the  lowest 
figure,  five  pairs  of  stairs  below  the  street,  and  plunged 
in  the  very  bowels  of  the  earth.  That  my  hotel  should 
thus  be  founded  upon  catacombs  was  a  discovery  of  con- 
siderable interest ;  and  if  I  had  not  been  in  a  frame  of 
mind  entirely  businesslike,  I  might  have  continued  to 
explore  all  night  this  subterranean  empire.  But  I  was 
bound  I  must  be  uji  betimes  on  the  next  morning,  and  for 
that  end  it  was  imperative  that  I  should  find  the  porter. 
I  faced  about  accordingly,  and  counting  with  painful 
care,  remounted  towards  the  level  of  the  street.  Five, 
six,  and  seven  flights  I  climbed,  and  still  there  was  no 
porter.     I  began  to  be  weary  of  the  job,  and  reflecting 


KOUSSILLON   WINE.  43 

that  I  was  now  close  to  my  own  room,  decided  I  should 
go  to  bed.  Eight,  nine,  ten,  eleven,  twelve,  thirteen 
flights  I  mounted ;  and  my  open  door  seemed  to  be  as 
wholly  lost  to  me  as  the  porter  and  his  floating  dip. 
I  remembered  that  the  house  stood  but  six  stories  at  its 
highest  point,  from  which  it  appeared  (on  the  most  mod- 
erate computation)  I  was  now  three  stories  higher  than 
the  roof.  My  original  sense  of  amusement  was  suc- 
ceeded by  a  not  unnatural  irritation.  "My  room  has 
just  got  to  be  here,",  said  I,  and  I  stepped  towards  the 
door  with  outspread  arms.  There  was  no  door  and  no 
wall ;  in  place  of  either  there  yawned  before  me  a  dark 
corridor,  in  which  I  continued  to  advance  for  some  time 
without  encountering  the  smallest  opposition.  And  this 
in  a  house  whose  extreme  area  scantily  contained  three 
small  rooms,  a  narrow  landing,  and  the  stair !  The  thing 
was  manifestly  nonsense ;  and  you  will  scarcely  be  sur- 
prised to  learn  that  I  now  began  to  lose  my  temper.  At 
this  juncture  I  perceived  a  filtering  of  light  along  the 
floor,  stretched  forth  my  hand  which  encountered  the 
knob  of  a  door-handle,  and  without  further  ceremony 
entered  a  room.  A  young  lady  was  within;  she  was 
going  to  bed,  and  her  toilet  was  far  advanced,  or  the 
other  way  about,  if  you  prefer. 

"I  hope  you  will  pardon  this  intrusion,"  said  I; 
"  but  my  room  is  No.  12,  and  something  has  gone  wrong 
with  this  blamed  house." 

She  looked  at  me  a  moment :  and  then.  "  If  you  will 


44  THE   WRECKER. 

step  outside  for  a  moment,  I  will  take  you  there,"  says 
she. 

Thus,  with  perfect  composure  on  both  sides,  the 
matter  was  arranged.  I  waited  awhile  outside  her  door. 
Presently  she  rejoined  me,  in  a  dressing-gown,  took  my 
hand,  led  me  up  another  flight,  which  made  the  fourth 
above  the  level  of  the  roof,  and  shut  me  into  my  own 
room,  where  (being  quite  weary  after  these  contraordi- 
nary  explorations)  I  turned  in,  and  slumbered  like  a 
child. 

I  tell  you  the  thing  calmly,  as  it  appeared  to  me  to 
pass ;  but  the  next  day,  when  I  awoke  and  put  memory 
in  the  witness-box,  I  could  not  conceal  from  myself  that 
the  tale  presented  a  good  many  improbable  features.  I 
had  no  mind  for  the  studio,  after  all,  and  went  instead 
to  the  Luxembourg  gardens,  there,  among  the  sparrows 
and  the  statues  and  the  falling  leaves,  to  cool  and  clear 
my  head.  It  is  a  garden  I  have  always  loved.  You  sit 
there  in  a  public  place  of  history  and  fiction.  Barras 
and  Fouch4  have  looked  from  these  windows.  Lousteau 
and  de  Banville  (one  as  real  as  the  other)  have  rhymed 
upon  these  benches.  The  city  tramples  by  without  the 
railings  to  a  lively  measure ;  and  within  and  about  you, 
trees  rustle,  children  and  sparrows  utter  their  small 
cries,  and  the  statues  look  on  forever.  Here,  then,  in  a 
seat  opposite  the  gallery  entrance,  I  set  to  work  on  the 
events  of  the  last  night,  to  disengage  (if  it  were  pos* 
sible)  truth  from  fiction. 


ROUSSILLON  WLNE.  45 

The  house,  by  daylight,  had  proved  to  be  six  stories 
high,  the  same  as  ever.  I  could  find,  with  all  my  archi- 
tectural experience,  no  room  in  its  altitude  for  those 
interminable  stairways,  no  width  between  its  walls  for 
that  long  corridor,  where  I  had  tramped  at  night.  And 
there  was  yet  a  greater  difficulty.  I  had  read  somewhere 
an  aphorism  that  everything  may  be  false  to  itself  save 
human  nature.  A  house  might  elongate  or  enlarge  itself 
—  or  seem  to  do  so  to  a  gentleman  who  had  been  dining. 
The  ocean  might  dry  up,  the  rocks  melt  in  the  sun,  the 
stars  fall  from  heaven  like  autumn  apples ;  and  there 
was  nothing  in  these  incidents  to  boggle  the  philosopher. 
But  the  case  of  the  young  lady  stood  upon  a  different 
foundation.  Girls  were  not  good  enough,  or  not  good 
that  way,  or  else  they  were  too  good.  I  was  ready  to 
accept  any  of  these  views :  all  pointed  to  the  same  con- 
clusion, which  I  was  thus  already  on  the  point  of  reach- 
ing, when  a  fresh  argument  occurred,  and  instantly 
confirmed  it.  I  could  remember  the  exact  words  we  had 
each  said ;  and  I  had  spoken,  and  she  had  replied,  in 
English.  Plainly,  then,  the  whole  affair  was  an  illusion : 
catacombs,  and  stairs,  and  charitable  lady,  all  were 
equally  the  stuff  of  dreams. 

I  had  just  come  to  this  determination,  when  there  blew 
a  flaw  of  wind  through  the  autumnal  gardens  ;  the  dead 
leaves  showered  down,  and  a  flight  of  sparrows,  thick  as 
a  snowfall,  wheeled  above  my  head  with  sudden  pipings. 
This  agreeable  bustle  was  the  affair  of  a  moment,  but  it 


46  THE   WriECKER. 

startled  me  from  the  abstraction  into  which  I  had  fallen, 
like  a  summons.  I  sat  briskly  up,  and  as  I  did  so,  my 
eyes  rested  on  the  figure  of  a  lady  in  a  brown  jacket  and 
carrying  a  paint-box.  By  her  side  walked  a  fellow  some 
years  older  than  myself,  with  an  easel  under  his  arm ;  and 
alike  by  their  course  and  cargo  I  might  judge  they  were 
bound  for  the  gallery,  where  the  lady  was,  doubtless,  en- 
gaged upon  some  copying.  You  can  imagine  my  surprise 
when  I  recognized  in  her  the  heroine  of  my  adventure. 
To  put  the  matter  beyond  question,  our  eyes  met,  and 
she,  seeing  herself  remembered  and  recalling  the  trim  in 
which  I  had  last  beheld  her,  looked  swiftly  on  the  ground 
with  just  a  shadow  of  confusion. 

I  could  not  tell  you  to-day  if  she  were  plain  or  pretty ; 
but  she  had  behaved  with  so  much  good  sense,  and  I  had 
cut  so  poor  a  figure  in  her  presence,  that  I  became  in- 
stantly fired  with  the  desire  to  display  myself  in  a  more 
favorable  light.  The  young  man  besides  was  possibly 
her  brother ;  brothers  are  apt  to  be  hasty,  theirs  being  a 
part  in  which  it  is  possible,  at  a  comparatively  early  age, 
to  assume  the  dignity  of  manhood;  and  it  occurred  to 
me  it  might  be  wise  to  forestall  all  possible  complica- 
tions by  an  apology. 

On  this  reasoning  I  drew  near  to  the  gallery  door,  and 
had  hardly  got  in  position  before  the  young  man  came 
out.  Thus  it  was  that  I  came  face  to  face  with  my  third 
destiny ;  for  my  career  has  been  entirely  shaped  by  these 
three  elements,  —  my  father,  the  capitol  of  Muskegon, 


TO  INTRODUCE  ME.  PINKERTON.        47 

and  my  friend,  Jim  Pinkerton.  As  for  the  young  lady 
with  whom  my  mind  was  at  the  moment  chiefly  occupied, 
I  was  never  to  hear  more  cf  her  from  that  day  forward : 
an  excellent  example  of  the  Blind  Man's  Buff  that  we 
call  life. 


CHAPTEE   III. 

TO   INTRODUCE    MR.    PINKERTON. 

The  stranger,  I  have  said,  was  some  years  older  than 
myself :  a  man  of  a  good  stature,  a  very  lively  face,  cor- 
dial, agitated  manners,  and  a  gray  eye  as  active  as  a 
fowl's. 

"  May  I  have  a  word  with  you  ?  "  said  I. 

"  My  dear  sir,"  he  replied,  "  I  don't  know  what  it  can 
be  about,  but  you  may  have  a  hundred  if  you  like." 

"You  have  just  left  the  side  of  a  young  lady,"  I  con- 
tinued, "  towards  whom  I  was  led  (very  unintentionally) 
into  the  appearance  of  an  offence.  To  speak  to  herself 
would  be  only  to  renew  her  embarrassment,  and  I  seize 
the  occasion  of  making  my  apology,  and  declaring  my 
respect,  to  one  of  my  own  sex  who  is  her  friend,  and  per- 
haps," I  added,  with  a  bow,  "her  natural  protector." 


48  THE   WRECKER. 

"  You  are  a  countryman  of  mine ;  I  know  it ! "  he  cried : 
"  I  am  sure  of  it  by  your  delicacy  to  a  lady.  You  do  her 
no  more  than  justice.  I  was  introduced  to  her  the  other 
night  at  tea,  in  the  apartment  of  some  people,  friends  of 
mine ;  and  meeting  her  again  this  morning,  I  could  not 
do  less  than  carry  her  easel  for  her.  My  dear  sir,  what 
it  your  name  ?  " 

I  was  disappointed  to  find  he  had  so  little  bond  with 
my  young  lady ;  and  but  that  it  was  I  who  had  sought 
the  acquaintance,  might  have  been  tempted  to  retreat. 
At  the  same  time,  something  in  the  stranger's  eye  en- 
gaged me. 

"  My  name,"  said  I,  "  is  Loudon  Dodd ;  I  am  a  student 
of  sculpture  here  from  Muskegon." 

"  Of  sculpture  ?  "  he  cried,  as  though  that  would  have 
been  his  last  conjecture.  "Mine  is  James  Pinkei-ton; 
I  am  delighted  to  have  the  pleasure  of  your  acquaint-, 
ance." 

"  Pinkerton ! "  it  was  now  my  turn  to  exclaim.  "  Are 
you  Broken-Stool  Pinkerton  ?  " 

He  admitted  his  identity  with  a  laugh  of  boyish  delight  •, 
and  indeed  any  young  man  in  the  quarter  might  have 
been  proud  to  own  a  sobriquet  thus  gallantly  acquired. 

In  ordet  to  explain  the  name,  I  must  here  digress  into 
a  chapter  of  the  history  of  manners  in  the  nineteenth 
century,  very  well  worth  commemoration  for  its  own 
sake.     In  some  of  the  studios  at  that  date,  the  hazing  of 


TO  INTRODUCE  MR.  PINKERTON.       49 

Hew  pupils  was  both  barbarous  and  obscene.  Two  inci- 
dents following  one  on  the  heels  of  the  other  tended  to 
produce  an  advance  in  civilization  by  the  means  (as  so 
commonly  happens)  of  a  passing  appeal  to  savage  stand- 
ards. The  first  was  the  arrival  of  a  little  gentleman 
from  Armenia.  He  had  a  fez  upon  his  head  and  (what 
nobody  counted  on)  a  dagger  in  his  pocket.  The  hazing 
was  set  about  in  the  customary  style,  and,  perhaps  in 
virtue  of  the  victim's  head-gear,  even  more  boisterously 
than  usual.  He  bore  it  at  first  with  an  inviting  patience ; 
but  upon  one  of  the  students  proceeding  to  an  unpardon- 
able freedom,  plucked  out  his  knife  and  suddenly  plunged 
it  in  the  belly  of  the  jester.  This  gentleman,  I  am 
pleased  to  say,  passed  months  upon  a  bed  of  sickness, 
before  he  was  in  a  position  to  resume  his  studies.  The 
second  incident  was  that  which  had  earned  Pinkerton  his 
reputation.  In  a  crowded  studio,  while  some  very  filthy 
brutalities  were  being  practised  on  a  trembling  debutant,  a 
tall,  pale  fellow  sprang  from  his  stool  and  (without  the 
smallest  preface  or  explanation)  sang  out,  "  All  English 
and  Americans  to  clear  the  shop  ! "  Our  race  is  brutal, 
but  not  filthy;  and  the  summons  was  nobly  responded  to. 
Every  Anglo-Saxon  student  seized  his  stool ;  in  a  moment 
the  studio  was  full  of  bloody  coxcombs,  the  French 
fleeing  in  disorder  for  the  door,  the  victim  liberated  and 
amazed.  In  this  feat  of  arms,  both  English-speaking 
nations  covered  themselves  with  glory ;  but  I  am  proud 
to  claim  the  author  of  the  whole  for  an  American,  and  a 


50  THE  WRECKER. 

patriotic  American  at  that,  being  tlie  same  gentleman 
who  had  subsequently  to  be  held  down  in  the  bottom  of 
a  box  during  a  performance  of  VOnde  Sam,  sobbing  at 
intervals,  "  My  country,  0  my  country ! "  While  yet 
another  (my  new  acquaintance,  Pinkerton)  was  supposed 
to  have  made  the  most  conspicuous  figure  in  the  actual 
battle.  At  one  blow,  he  had  broken  his  own  stool  and 
sent  the  largest  of  his  opponents  back  foremost  through 
what  we  used  to  call  "  a  conscientious  nude."  It  appears 
that,  in  the  continuation  of  his  flight,  this  fallen  warrior 
issued  on  the  boulevard  still  framed  in  the  burst  canvas. 
It  will  be  understood  how  much  talk  the  incident 
aroused  in  the  students'  quarter,  and  that  I  was  highly 
gratified  to  make  the  acquaintance  of  my  famous  coun- 
tryman. It  chanced  I  was  to  see  more  of  the  quixotic 
side  of  his  character  before  the  morning  was  done ;  for 
as  we  continued  to  stroll  together,  I  found  myself  near 
the  studio  of  a  young  Frenchman  whose  work  I  had 
promised  to  examine,  and  in  the  fashion  of  the  quarter 
carried  up  Pinkerton  along  with  me.  Some  of  my  com- 
rades of  this  date  were  pretty  obnoxious  fellows.  I 
could  almost  always  admire  and  respect  the  grown-up 
practitioners  of  art  in  Paris ;  but  many  of  those  who 
were  still  in  a  state  of  pupilage  were  sorry  specimens,  so 
much  so  that  I  used  often  to  wonder  where  the  painters 
came  from,  and  where  the  brutes  of  students  went  to. 
A  similar  mystery  hangs  over  the  intermediate  stages  of 
the  medical  profession,  and  must  have  perplexed  the 


TO  INTRODUCE  MR.  PINKERTON.        51 

least  observant.  The  ruffian,  at  least,  -whom  I  now  car- 
ried Pinkerton  to  visit,  was  one  of  the  most  crapulous  in 
the  quarter.  He  turned  out  for  our  delectation  a  huge 
"crust"  (as  we  used  to  call  it)  of  St.  Stephen,  wallowing 
in  red  upon  his  belly  in  an  exhausted  receiver,  and  a 
crowd  of  Hebrews  in  blue,  green,  and  yellow,  pelting 
him  —  apparently  with  buns ;  and  while  we  gazed  upon 
this  contrivance,  regaled  us  with  a  piece  of  his  own 
recent  biography,  of  which  his  mind  was  still  very  full, 
and  which  he  seemed  to  fancy  represented  him  in  a 
heroic  posture.  I  was  one  of  those  cosmopolitan  Ameri- 
cans, who  accept  the  world  (whether  at  home  or  abroad) 
as  they  find  it,  and  whose  favourite  part  is  that  of  the 
spectator;  yet  even  I  was  listening  with  ill-suppressed 
disgust,  when  I  was  aware  of  a  violent  plucking  at  my 
sleeve. 

"  Is  he  saying  he  kicked  her  down  stairs  ? "  asked 
Pinkerton,  white  as  St.  Stephen. 

"Yes,"  said  I:  "his  discarded  mistress;  and  then  he 
pelted  her  with  stones.  I  suppose  that's  what  gave  him 
the  idea  for  his  picture.  He  has  just  been  alleging  the 
pathetic  excuse  that  she  was  old  enough  to  be  his 
mother." 

Something  like  a  sob  broke  from  Pinkerton.  "Tell 
him,"  he  gasped  —  "I  can't  speak  this  language,  though 
I  understand  a  little ;  I  never  had  any  proper  education 
—tell  him  I'm  going  to  punch  his  head." 

"  For  God's  sake,  do  nothing  of  the  sort ! "   I  cried. 


62  THE   WRECKER. 

"  They  don't  understand  tliat  sort  of  thing  here."  And 
I  tried  to  bundle  him  out. 

"Tell  him  first  what  we  think  of  him,"  he  objected. 
"  Let  me  tell  him  what  he  looks  in  the  eyes  of  a  pure- 
minded  American." 

"Leave  that  to  me,"  said  I,  thrusting  Pinkerton  clear 
through  the  door. 

"  Qii'est-ce  qu'il  a?"  ^  inquired  the  student. 

^'Monsieur  se  sent  vial  au  coeur  d' avoir  trop  regard^  voire 
croute"^  said  I,  and  made  my  escape,  scarce  with  dig- 
nity, at  Pinkerton's  heels. 

"What  did  you  say  to  him  ?  "  he  asked. 

"  The  only  thing  that  he  could  feel,"  was  my  reply. 

After  this  scene,  the  freedom  with  which  I  had  ejected 
my  new  acquaintance,  and  the  precipitation  with  which 
I  had  followed  him,  the  least  I  could  do  was  to  propose 
luncheon.  I  have  forgot  the  name  of  the  place  to  which 
I  led  him,  nothing  loath  ;  it  was  on  the  far  side  of  the 
Luxembourg  at  least,  with  a  garden  behind,  where  we 
were  speedily  set  face  to  face  at  table,  and  began  to  dig 
into  each  other's  history  and  character,  like  terriers  after 
rabbits,  according  to  the  approved  fashion  of  youth. 

Pinkerton's  parents  were  from  the  old  country ;  there 

^  "  What's  the  matter  with  him  ?  " 

2  "  The  gentleman  is  sick  at  his  stomach  from  having  looked  too  long 
at  your  daub." 


TO   INTRODUCE   MR.    PINKERTOlSr.  53 

too,  I  incidentally  gathered,  he  had  himself  been  born, 
though  it  was  a  circumstance  he  seemed  prone  to  forget. 
Whether  he  had  run  away,  or  his  father  had  turned  him 
out,  I  never  fathomed ;  but  about  the  age  of  twelve,  he 
was  thrown  upon  his  own  resources.  A  travelling  tin- 
type photographer  picked  him  up,  like  a  haw  out  of  a 
hedgerow,  on  a  wayside  in  New  Jersey ;  took  a  fancy  to 
the  urchin ;  carried  him  on  with  him  in  his  wandering 
life;  taught  him  all  he  knew  himself — to  take  tin-types 
(as  well  as  I  can  make  out)  and  doubt  the  Scriptures  ; 
and  died  at  last  in  Ohio  at  the  corner  of  a  road.  "He 
was  a  grand  specimen,"  cried  Pinkerton ;  "  I  wish  you 
could  have  seen  him,  Mr.  Dodd.  He  had  an  appearance 
of  magnanimity  that  used  to  remind  me  of  the  patri- 
archs." On  the  death  of  this  random  protector,  the  boy 
inherited  the  plant  and  continued  the  business.  "  It  was 
a  life  I  could  have  chosen,  Mr.  Dodd ! "  he  cried.  "  I 
have  been  in  all  the  finest  scenes  of  that  magnificent 
continent  that  we  were  born  to  be  the  heirs  of.  I  wish 
you  could  see  my  collection  of  tin-types ;  I  wish  I  had 
them  here.  They  were  taken  for  my  own  pleasure  and 
to  be  a  memento ;  and  they  show  Nature  in  her  grandest 
as  well  as  her  gentlest  moments."  As  he  tramped  the 
Western  States  and  Territories,  taking  tin-types,  the 
boy  was  continually  getting  hold  of  books,  good,  bad, 
and  indifferent,  popular  and  abstruse,  from  the  novels 
of  Sylvanus  Cobb  to  Euclid's  Elements,  both  of  which 


64  THE   WRECKER. 

I  found  (to  my  almost  equal  wonder)  he  had  managed 
to  peruse :  he  was  taking  stock  by  the  way,  of  the 
people,  the  products,  and  the  country,  with  an  eye 
unusually  observant  and  a  memory  unusually  retentive  ; 
and  he  was  collecting  for  himself  a  body  of  magnan- 
imous and  semi-intellectual  nonsense,  which  he  supposed 
to  be  the  natural  thoughts  and  to  contain  the  whole 
duty  of  the  born  American.  To  be  pure-minded,  to  be 
patriotic,  to  get  culture  and  money  with  both  hands 
and  with  the  same  irrational  fervour  —  these  appeared 
to  be  the  chief  articles  of  his  creed.  In  later  days 
(not  of  course  upon  this  first  occasion)  I  would  some- 
times ask  him  why;  and  he  had  his  answer  pat.  "To 
build  up  the  type ! "  he  would  cry.  "  We're  all  com- 
mitted to  that ;  we're  all  under  bond  to  fulfil  the  Amer- 
ican Type !  Loudon,  the  hope  of  the  world  is  there. 
If  we  fail,  like  these  old  feudal  monarchies,  what  is 
left?" 

The  trade  of  a  tin-typer  proved  too  narrow  for  the 
lad's  ambition ;  it  was  insusceptible  of  expansion,  he 
explained,  it  was  not  truly  modern ;  and  by  a  sudden 
conversion  of  front,  he  became  a  railroad-scalper.  The 
principles  of  this  trade  I  never  clearly  understood ;  but 
its  essence  appears  to  be  to  cheat  the  railroads  out  of 
their  due  fare.  ''  I  threw  my  whole  soul  into  it ;  I 
grudged  myself  food  and  sleep  while  I  was  at  it;  the 
most  practised  hands  admitted  I  had  caught  on  to  the 


TO  INTRODUCE  MR.  PINKERTON.        55 

idea  in  a  month  and  revolutionised  the  practice  inside  of 
a  year,"  he  said.  "  And  there's  interest  in  it,  too.  It's 
amusing  to  pick  out  some  one  going  by,  make  up  your 
mind  about  his  character  and  tastes,  dash  out  of  the 
office  and  hit  him  flying  with  an  offer  of  the  very  place 
he  wants  to  go  to.  I  don't  think  there  was  a  scalper 
on  the  continent  made  fewer  blunders.  But  I  took  it 
only  as  a  stage.  I  was  saving  every  dollar;  I  was 
looking  ahead.  I  knew  what  I  wanted  —  wealth,  educa- 
tion, a  refined  home,  and  a  conscientious,  cultured  lady 
for  a  wife;  for,  Mr.  Dodd"  —  this  with  a  formidable 
outcry  —  "  every  man  is  bound  to  marry  above  him :  if 
the  woman's  not  the  man's  superior,  I  brand  it  as  mere 
sensuality.  There  was  my  idea,  at  least.  That  was 
what  I  was  saving  for ;  and  enough,  too !  But  it  isn't 
every  man,  I  know  that  —  it's  far  from  every  man  — 
could  do  what  I  did :  close  up  the  livest  agency  in  Saint 
Jo,  where  he  was  coining  dollars  by  the  pot,  set  out 
alone,  without  a  friend  or  a  word  of  French,  and  settle 
down  here  to  spend  his  capital  learning  art." 

"Was  it  an  old  taste?"  I  asked  him,  ''or  a  sudden 
fancy  ? " 

"Neither,  Mr.  Dodd,"  he  admitted.  "Of  course,  I 
had  learned  in  my  tin-typing  excursions  to  glory  and 
exult  in  the  works  of  God.  But  it  wasn't  that.  I  just 
said  to  myself.  What  is  most  wanted  in  my  age  and 
country?     More  culture  and  more  art,   I   said;   and  I 


56  THE    WRECKER. 

chose  the  best  place,  saved  my  money,  and  came  here 
to  get  them." 

The  whole  attitude  of  this  young  man  warmed  and 
shamed  me.  He  had  more  hre  in  his  little  toe  than  I 
in  my  whole  carcase;  he  was  stuffed  to  bursting  with 
the  manly  virtues ;  thrift  and  courage  glowed  in  him ; 
and  even  if  his  artistic  vocation  seemed  (to  one  of  my 
exclusive  tenets)  not  quite  clear,  who  could  predict 
what  might  be  accomplished  by  a  creature  so  full- 
blooded  and  so  inspired  with  animal  and  intellectual 
energy  ?  So,  when  he  proposed  that  I  should  come 
and  see  his  work  (one  of  the  regular  stages  of  a  Latin 
Quarter  friendship)  I  followed  him  with  interest  and 
hope. 

He  lodged  parsimoniously  at  the  top  of  a  tall  house 
near  the  Observatory,  in  a  bare  room,  principally  fur- 
nished with  his  own  trunks  and  papered  with  his  own 
despicable  studies.  No  man  has  less  taste  for  disagree- 
able duties  than  myself;  perhaps  there  is  only  one  sub- 
ject on  which  I  cannot  flatter  a  man  without  a  blush ; 
but  upon  that,  upon  all  that  touches  art,  my  sincerity 
is  Eoman.  Once  and  twice  I  made  the  circuit  of  his 
walls  in  silence,  spying  in  every  corner  for  some  spark 
of  merit;  he,  meanwhile,  following  close  at  my  heels, 
reading  the  verdict  in  my  face  with  furtive  glances, 
presenting  some  fresh  study  for  my  inspection  with 
undisguised   anxiety,    and    (after   it   had   been   silently 


TO  INTRODUCE  MR.  PINKERTON.        57 

weighed  in  the  balances  and  found  wanting)  whisking 
it  away  with  an  open  gesture  of  despair.  By  the  tim-.; 
the  second  round  was  completed,  we  were  both  extremely 
depressed. 

"  0 ! "  he  groaned,  breaking  the  long  silence,  "  it's 
quite  unnecessary  you  should  speak ! " 

"  Do  you  want  me  to  be  frank  with  you  ?  I  think 
you  are  wasting  time,"  said  I. 

"  You  don't  see  any  promise  ?  "  he  inquired,  beguiled 
by  some  return  of  hope,  and  turning  upon  me  the  em- 
barrassing brightness  of  his  eye.  "  Not  in  this  still-life 
here,  of  the  melon  ?     One  fellow  thought  it  good." 

It  was  the  least  I  could  do  to  give  the  melon  a  more 
particular  examination ;  which,  when  I  had  done,  I  could 
but  shake  my  head.  "I  am  truly  sorry,  Pinkerton," 
said  I,  "  but  I  can't  advise  you  to  persevere." 

He  seemed  to  recover  his  fortitude  at  the  moment, 
rebounding  from  disappointment  like  a  man  of  india- 
rubber.  "  Well,"  said  he,  stoutly,  ''  I  don't  know  that 
I'm  surprised.  But  I'll  go  on  with  the  course  ;  and 
throw  my  whole  soul  into  it,  too.  You  mustn't  think 
the  time  is  lost.  It's  all  culture ;  it  will  help  me  to 
extend  my  relations  when  I  get  back  home ;  it  may  fit 
me  for  a  position  on  one  of  the  illustrateds ;  and  then  I 
can  always  turn  dealer,"  he  said,  uttering  the  monstrous 
proposition,  which  was  enough  to  shake  the  Latin  Quar- 
ter to  the  dust,  with  entire  siinplicity.     "  It's  all  cxperi- 


68  THE  WEECKEE. 

ence,  besides ; "  lie  continued,  "  and  it  seems  to  me 
there's  a  tendency  to  underrate  experience,  both  as  net 
profit  and  investment.  Never  mind.  That's  done  with. 
But  it  took  courage  for  you  to  say  what  you  did,  and 
I'll  never  forget  it.  Here's  my  hand,  Mr.  Dodd.  I'm 
not  your  equal  in  culture  or  talent  — " 

"You  know  nothing  about  that,"  I  interrupted.  "I 
have  seen  your  work,  but  you  haven't  seen  mine." 

"  No  more  I  have,"  he  cried ;  "  and  let's  go  see  it  at 
once!  But  I  know  you  are  away  up.  I  can  feel  it 
here." 

To  say  truth,  I  was  almost  ashamed  to  introduce  him 
to  my  studio  —  my  work,  whether  absolutely  good  or 
'bad,  being  so  vastly  superior  to  his.  But  his  spirits 
were  now  quite  restored;  and  he  amazed  me,  on  the 
way,  with  his  light-hearted  talk  and  new  projects.  So 
that  I  began  at  last  to  understand  how  matters  lay :  that 
this  was  not  an  artist  who  had  been  deprived  of  the 
practice  of  his  single  art;  but  only  a  business  man  of 
very  extended  interests,  informed  (perhaps  something 
of  the  most  suddenly)  that  one  investment  out  of  twenty 
had  gone  wrong. 

As  a  matter  of  fact  besides  (although  I  never  sus- 
pected it)  he  was  already  seeking  consolation  with 
another  of  the  muses,  and  pleasing  himself  with  the 
notion  that  he  would  repay  me  for  my  sincerity,  cement 
our  friendship,  and  (at  one  and  the  same  blow)  restore 
my  estimation   of  his  talents.     Several  times  already, 


TO  INTRODUCE  MR.  PINKERTON.        59 

when  I  had  been  speaking  of  myself,  he  had  pulled  out 
a  writing-pad  and  scribbled  a  brief  note ;  and  now,  when 
we  entered  the  studio,  I  saw  it  in  his  hand  again,  and 
the  pencil  go  to  his  mouth,  as  he  cast  a  comprehensive 
glance  round  the  uncomfortable  building. 

"  Are  you  going  to  make  a  sketch  of  it  ?  "  I  could  not 
help  asking,  as  I  unveiled  the  Genius  of  Muskegon, 

"Ah,  that's  my  secret,"  said  he.  "Never  you  mind. 
A  mouse  can  help  a  lion." 

He  walked  round  my  statue  and  had  the  design 
explained  to  him.  I  had  represented  Muskegon  as  a 
young,  almost  a  stripling,  mother,  with  something  of 
an  Indian  type;  the  babe  upon  her  knees  was  winged, 
to  indicate  our  soaring  future ;  and  her  seat  was  a 
medley  of  sculptured  fragments,  Greek,  Roman,  and 
Gothic,  to  remind  us  of  the  older  worlds  from  which  we 
trace  our  generation. 

"Now,  does  this  satisfy  you,  Mr.  Dodd?"  he  in- 
quired, as  soon  as  I  had  explained  to  him  the  main 
features  of  the  design. 

"Well,"  I  said,  "the  fellows  seem  to  think  it's  not 
a  bad  bonne  femme  for  a  beginner.  I  don't  think  it's 
entirely  bad,  myself.  Here  is  the  best  point ;  it  builds 
up  best  from  here.  No,  it  seems  to  me  it  has  a  kind  of 
merit,"  I  admitted ;  "  but  I  mean  to  do  better." 

"Ah,  that's  the  word!"  cried  Pinkerton.  "There's 
the  word  I  love  ! "  and  he  scribbled  in  his  pad. 

"What    in  creation   ails  you?"    I  inquired.      "It's 


60  THE   WRECKER. 

the  most  commonplace  expression  in  the  English  Ian 
guage." 

"  Better  and  better ! "  chuckled  Pinkerton.  ''  The  un- 
consciousness of  genius.  Lord,  but  this  is  coming  in 
beautiful ! "  and  he  scribbled  again. 

"  If  you're  going  to  be  fulsome,"  said  I,  "  I'll  close  the 
place  of  entertainment."  And  I  threatened  to  replace 
the  veil  upon  the  Genius. 

"No,  no,"  said  he.  "Don't  be  in  a  hurry.  Give  me  a 
point  or  two.     Show  me  what's  particularly  good." 

"I  would  rather  you  found  that  out  for  yourself," 
said  I. 

"  The  trouble  is,"  said  he,  "  that  I've  never  turned  my 
attention  to  sculpture,  beyond,  of  course,  admiring  it,  as 
everybody  must  who  has  a  soul.  So  do  just  be  a  good 
fellow,  and  explain  to  me  what  you  like  in  it,  and  what 
you  tried  for,  and  where  the  merit  comes  in.  It'll  be  all 
education  for  me." 

"  Well,  in  sculpture,  you  see,  the  first  thing  you  have 
to  consider  is  the  masses.  It's,  after  all,  a  kind  of  archi- 
tecture," I  began,  and  delivered  a  lecture  on  that  branch 
of  art,  with  illustrations  from  my  own  masterpiece  there 
present,  all  of  which,  if  you  don't  mind,  or  whether  you 
mind  or  not,  I  mean  to  conscientiously  omit.  Pinkerton 
listened  with  a  iiery  interest,  questioned  me  with  a  cer- 
tain uncultivated  shrewdness,  and  continued  to  scratch 
down  notes,  and  tear  fresh  sheets  from  his  pad.  I  found 
it  inspiring  to  have  my  words  thus  taken  down  like  a 


TO  INTRODUCE  MR.  PTKKERTON.        61 

professor's  lecture;  and  having  liad  no  previous  expe- 
rience of  the  press,  I  was  unaware  that  they  were  all 
being  taken  down  wrong.  For  the  same  reason  (incred- 
ible as  it  must  appear  in  an  American)  I  never  enter- 
tained the  least  suspicion  that  they  were  destined  to  be 
dished  up  with  a  sauce  of  penny-a-lining  gossip ;  and 
myself,  my  person,  and  my  works  of  art  butchered  to 
make  a  holiday  for  the  readers  of  a  Sunday  paper. 
Night  had  fallen  over  the  Genius  of  Muskegon  before 
the  issue  of  my  theoretic  eloquence  was  stayed,  nor 
did  I  separate  from  my  new  friend  without  an  appoint- 
ment for  the  morrow. 

I  was  indeed  greatly  taken  with  this  first  view  of  my 
countryman,  and  continued,  on  further  acquaintance,  to 
be  interested,  amused,  and  attracted  by  him  in  about 
equal  proportions.  I  must  not  say  he  had  a  fault,  not 
only  because  my  mouth  is  sealed  by  gratitude,  but  be- 
cause those  he  had  sprang  merely  from  his  education, 
and  you  could  see  he  had  cultivated  and  improved  them 
like  virtues.  For  all  that,  I  can  never  deny  he  was  a 
troublous  friend  to  me,  and  the  trouble  began  early. 

It  may  have  been  a  fortnight  later  that  I  divined  the 
secret  of  the  writing-pad.  My  wretch  (it  leaked  out) 
wrote  letters  for  a  paper  in  the  West,  and  had  filled  a 
part  of  one  of  them  with  descriptions  of  myself.  I 
pointed  out  to  him  that  he  had  no  right  to  do  so  without 
asking  my  permission. 

"Why,  this  is   just  what  I  hoped!"   he  exclaimed- 


62  THE   Wr.ECKER. 

"  T  thought  you  didn't  seem  to  catch  on ;  only  it  seemed 
too  good  to  be  true." 

"  But,  my  good  fellow,  you  were  bound  to  warn  me/' 
I  objected. 

"  I  know  it's  generally  considered  etiquette,"  he  ad- 
mitted; "but  between  friends,  and  when  it  was  only 
with  a  view  of  serving  you,  I  thought  it  wouldn't  matter. 
I  wanted  it  (if  possible)  to  come  on  you  as  a  surprise ; 
I  wanted  you  just  to  waken,  like  Lord  Byron,  and  find 
the  papers  full  of  you.  You  must  admit  it  was  a  natural 
thought.  And  no  man  likes  to  boast  of  a  favour  before- 
hand." 

"  But  heavens  and  earth !  how  do  you  know  I  think 
it  a  favour  ?  "  I  cried. 

He  became  immediately  plunged  in  despair.  "You 
think  it  a  liberty,"  said  he  ;  "I  see  that.  I  would  rather 
have  cut  off  my  hand.  I  would  stop  it  now,  only  it's  too 
late;  it's  published  by  now.  And  I  wrote  it  with  so 
much  pride  and  pleasure  ! " 

I  could  think  of  nothing  but  how  to  console  him. 
"  0,  I  daresay  it's  all  right,"  said  I.  "  I  know  you 
meant  it  kindly,  and  you  would  be  sure  to  do  it  in  good 
taste." 

"  That  you  may  swear  to,"  he  cried.  "  It's  a  pure, 
bright,  A  number  1  paper;  the  St.  Jo  Sunday  Herald. 
The  idea  of  the  series  was  quite  my  own ;  I  interviewed 
the  editor,  put  it  to  him  straight;  the  freshness  of  the 


TO  INTEODUCE  MR.  PINKERTON.        63 

idea  took  him,  and  I  walked  out  of  that  office  with  the 
coutvact  in  my  pocket,  and  did  my  first  Paris  letter 
that  evening  in  Saint  Jo.  The  editor  did  no  more  than 
glance  his  eye  down  the  headlines.  '  You're  the  man  for 
us,'  said  he." 

I  was  certainly  far  from  reassured  by  this  sketch  of 
the  class  of  literature  in  which  I  was  to  make  my  first 
appearance ;  but  I  said  no  more,  and  possessed  my  soul 
in  patience,  until  the  day  came  when  I  received  a  copy 
of  a  newspaper  marked  in  the  corner,  "  Compliments  of 
J.  P."  I  opened  it  with  sensible  shrinkings  ;  and  there, 
wedged  between  an  account  of  a  prize-fight  and  a  skittish 
article  upon  chiropody — think  of  chiropody  treated  with 
a  leer !  —  I  came  upon  a  column  and  a  half  in  which 
myself  and  my  poor  statue  were  embalmed.  Like  the 
editor  with  the  first  of  the  series,  I  did  but  glance  my 
eye  down  the  head-lines  and  was  more  than  satisfied. 

Al^OTHEE   OP  PIKKEETON'S   SPICY   CHATS. 

ART   PRACTITIOXERS   IN  PARIS. 

MUSKEGON'S  COLUMNED   CAPITOL. 

SON  OF  MILLIONTSTAIRE  DODD, 

PATRIOT   AXD   ARTIST. 
"HE  MEAXS   TO   DO   BETTER." 

In  the  body  of  the  text  besides,  my  eye  caught,  as  it 
passed,   some   deadly   expressions :    "  Pigure   somewhat 


G4  THE   WRECKER. 

fleshy,"  "bright,  intellectual  smile."  "the  unconscious- 
ness of  genius,"  " '  Xow,  j\Ir.  Dodd,'  resumed  the  re- 
porter, -what  would  be  your  idea  of  a  distinctively 
American  quality  in  sculpture  ? ' "  It  was  true  the 
question  had  been  asked ;  it  was  true,  alas !  that  I  had 
answered ;  and  now  here  was  my  reply,  or  some  strange 
hash  of  it,  gibbetted  in  the  cold  publicity  of  type.  I 
thanked  God  that  my  French  fellow-students  were  igno- 
rant of  English ;  but  when  I  thought  of  the  British  —  of 
Myner  (for  instance)  or  the  Stennises  —  I  think  I  could 
have  fallen  on  Pinkerton  and  beat  him. 

To  divert  my  thoughts  (if  it  were  possible)  from  this 
calamity,  I  turned  to  a  letter  from  my  father  which  had 
■arrived  by  the  same  post.  The  envelope  contained  a 
strip  of  newspaper-cutting;  and  my  eye  caught  again, 
"  Son  of  Millionnaire  Dodd  —  Figure  somewhat  fleshy," 
and  the  rest  of  the  degrading  nonsense.  What  would 
my  father  think  of  it  ?  I  wondered,  and  opened  his 
manuscript.  "My  dearest  boy,"  it  began,  "I  send  you 
a  cutting,  which  has  pleased  me  very  much,  from  a  St. 
Joseph  paper  of  high  standing.  At  last  you  seem  to 
be  coming  fairly  to  the  front ;  and  I  cannot  but  reflect 
with  delight  and  gratitude  how  very  few  youths  of  your 
age  occupy  nearly  two  columns  of  press-matter  all  to 
themselves.  I  only  wish  your  dear  mother  had  been 
here  to  read  it  over  my  shoulder ;  but  we  will  hope  she 
shares  my  grateful  emotion  in  a  better  place.  Of  course 
I  have  sent  a  copy  to  your  grandfather  and  uncle  in 


TO  INTRODUCE  MR.  PINKERTON.        65 

Edinburgli ;  so  you  can  keep  the  one  I  enclose.  This 
Jim  Pinkerton  seems  a  valuable  acquaintance ;  he  has 
certainly  great  talent;  and  it  is  a  good  general  rule  to 
keep  in  with  pressmen." 

I  hope  it  will  be  set  down  to  the  right  side  of  my 
account,  but  I  had  no  sooner  read  these  words,  so  touch 
ingly  silly,  than  my  anger  against  Pinkerton  was  swal- 
lowed up  in  gratitude.  Of  all  the  circumstances  of  my 
career,  my  birth,  perhaps,  excepted,  not  one  had  given 
my  poor  father  so  profound  a  pleasure  as  this  article  in 
the  Sunday  Herald.  What  a  fool,  then,  was  I,  to  be 
lamenting !  when  I  had  at  last,  and  for  once,  and  at  the 
cost  of  only  a  few  blushes,  paid  back  a  fraction  of 
my  debt  of  gratitude.  So  that,  when  I  next  met 
Pinkerton,  I  took  things  very  lightly ;  my  father  was 
pleased,  and  thought  the  letter  very  clever,  I  told  him ; 
for  my  own  part,  I  had  no  taste  for  publicity :  thought 
the  public  had  no  concern  with  the  artist,  only  with  his 
art ;  and  though  I  owned  he  had  handled  it  with  great 
consideration,  I  should  take  it  as  a  favour  if  he  never 
did  it  again. 

"  There  it  is,"  he  said,  despondingly.  "  Pve  hurt  you. 
You  can't  deceive  me,  Loudon.  It's  the  want  of  tact, 
and  it's  incurable."  He  sat  down,  and  leaned  his  head 
upon  his  hand.  "I  had  no  advantages  when  I  was 
young,  you  see,"  he  added. 

"Not  in  the  least,  my  dear  fellow,"  said  I.  "Only 
the  next  time  you  wish  to  do  me  a  service,  just  speak 


66  THE   WRECKER. 

about  my  work ;  leave  my  wretched  person  out,  and  my 
still  more  wretched  conversation;  and  above  all,"  I 
added,  with  an  irrepressible  shudder,  "don't  tell  them 
how  I  said  it !  There's  that  phrase,  now :  *■  With  a 
proud,  glad  smile/  Who  cares  whether  I  smiled  or 
not  ?  " 

"0,  there  now,  Loudon,  you're  entirely  wrong,"  he 
broke  in.  "  That's  what  the  public  likes ;  that's  the 
merit  of  the  thing,  the  literary  value.  It's  to  call  up 
the  scene  before  them ;  it's  to  enable  the  humblest  citi- 
zen to  enjoy  that  afternoon  the  same  as  I  did.  Think 
what  it  would  have  been  to  me  when  I  was  tramping 
around  with  my  tin-types  to  find  a  column  and  a  half  of 
real,  cultured  conversation  —  an  artist,  in  his  studio 
abroad,  talking  of  his  art  —  and  to  know  how  he  looked 
as  he  did  it,  and  what  the  room  was  like,  and  what  he 
had  for  breakfast;  and  to  tell  myself,  eating  tinned 
beans  beside  a  creek,  that  if  all  went  well,  the  same 
sort  of  thing  would,  sooner  or  later,  happen  to  myself : 
why,  Loudon,  it  would  have  been  like  a  peephole  into 
heaven !  '* 

"Well,  if  it  gives  so  much  pleasure,"  I  admitted,  "the 
sufferers  shouldn't  complain.  Only  give  the  other  fel- 
lows a  turn." 

The  end  of  the  matter  was  to  bring  myself  and 
the  journalist  in  a  more  close  relation.  If  I  know 
anything  at  all  of  human  nature  —  and  the  if  is  no 
mere  figure  of  speech,  but  stands  for  honest  doubt — ■ 


I  EXPERIENCE  EXTREMES  OF  FORTUNE.     6T 

no  series  of  benefits  conferred,  or  even  dangers  shared, 
Avould  have  so  rapidly  confirmed  our  friendship  as  this 
quarrel  avoided,  this  fundamental  difference  of  taste  and 
training  accepted  and  condoned. 


CHAPTER   IV. 

IN    WHICH    I    EXPERIENCE    EXTREMES    OF    FORTUNE. 

Whether  it  came  from  my  training  and  repeated  bank- 
ruptcy at  the  commercial  college,  or  by  direct  inheritance 
from  old  Loudon,  the  Edinburgh  mason,  there  can  be 
no  doubt  about  the  fact  that  I  was  thrifty.  Looking 
myself  impartially  over,  I  believe  that  is  my  only  manly 
virtue.  During  my  first  two  years  in  Paris  I  not  only 
made  it  a  point  to  keep  well  inside  of  my  allowance,  but 
accumulated  considerable  savings  in  the  bank.  You 
will  say,  with  my  masquerade  of  living  as  a  penniless 
student,  it  must  have  been  easy  to  do  so :  I  should 
have  had  no  difficulty,  however,  in  doing  the  reverse. 
Indeed,  it  is  wonderful  I  did  not ;  and  early  in  the  third 
year,  or  soon  after  I  had  known  Pinkerton,  a  singular 
incident  proved  it  to  have  been  equally  wise.  Quarter- 
day  came,  and  brought  no  allowance.  A  letter  of  re- 
monstrance was  despatched,  and  for  the  first  time  in 
my  experience,  remained  unanswered.     A  cablegram  was 


68  THE   WRECKER. 

more  effectual ;  for  it  brought  me  at  least  a  promise  of 
attention.  "  Will  write  at  once,"  my  father  telegraphed ; 
but  I  waited  long  for  his  letter.  I  was  puzzled,  angry, 
and  alarmed ;  but  thanks  to  my  previous  thrift,  I  cannot 
say  that  I  was  ever  practically  embarrassed.  The  em- 
barrassment, the  distress,  the  agony,  were  all  for  my 
unhappy  father  at  home  in  Muskegon,  struggling  for 
life  and  fortune  against  untoward  chances,  returning  at 
night  from  a  day  of  ill-starred  shifts  and  ventures,  to 
read  and  perhaps  to  weep  over  that  last  harsh  letter 
from  his  only  child,  to  which  he  lacked  the  courage  to 
reply. 

Nearly  three  months  after  time,  and  when  my  econo- 
mies were  beginning  to  run  low,  I  received  at  last  a 
letter  with  the  customary  bills  of  exchange. 

"  My  dearest  boy,"  it  ran,  "  I  believe,  in  the  press  of 
anxious  business,  your  letters  and  even  your  allowance 
have  been  somewhile  neglected.  You  must  try  to  for- 
give your  poor  old  dad,  for  he  has  had  a  trying  time; 
and  now  when  it  is  over,  the  doctor  wants  me  to 
take  my  shotgun  and  go  to  the  Adirondacks  for  a 
change.  You  must  not  fancy  I  am  sick,  only  over- 
driven and  under  the  weather.  Many  of  our  foremost 
operators  have  gone  down :  John  T.  M'Brady  skipped 
to  Canada  with  a  trunkful  of  boodle ;  Billy  Sand- 
with,  Charlie  Downs,  Joe  Kaiser,  and  many  others  of 
our  leading  men  in  this  city  bit  the  dust.  But  Big- 
Head  Dodd  has  again  weathered  the  blizzard,  and  I 


I  EXPERIENCE   EXTREMES   OF   FORTUNE.  69 

think  I  have  fixed  things  so  that  we  may  be  richer 
than  ever  before  autumn. 

"  Now  I  will  tell  you,  my  dear,  what  I  propose.  You 
say  you  are  well  advanced  with  your  first  statue ;  start 
in  manfully  and  finish  it,  and  if  your  teacher  —  I  can 
never  remember  how  to  spell  his  name  —  will  send  me 
a  certificate  that  it  is  up  to  market  standard,  you  shall 
have  ten  thousand  dollars  to  do  what  you  like  with, 
either  at  home  or  in  Paris.  I  suggest,  since  you  say  the 
facilities  for  work  are  so  much  greater  in  that  city,  you 
would  do  well  to  buy  or  build  a  little  home;  and  the 
first  thing  you  know,  your  dad  will  be  dropping  in  for 
a  luncheon.  Indeed,  I  would  come  now,  for  I  am  begin- 
ning to  grow  old,  and  I  long  to  see  my  dear  bo}^ ;  but 
there  are  still  some  operations  that  want  watching  and 
nursing.  Tell  your  friend,  Mr.  Pinkerton,  that  I  read 
his  letters  every  week;  and  though  I  have  looked  in 
vain  lately  for  my  Loudon's  name,  still  I  learn  some- 
thing of  the  life  he  is  leading  in  that  strange,  old  world, 
depicted  by  an  able  pen." 

Here  was  a  letter  that  no  young  man  could  possibly 
digest  in  solitude.  It  marked  one  of  those  junctures 
when  the  confidant  is  necessary ;  and  the  confidant 
selected  was  none  other  than  Jim  Pinkerton.  My 
father's  message  may  have  had  an  influence  in  this 
decision ;  but  I  scarce  suppose  so,  for  the  intimacy  was 
already  far  advanced.  I  had  a  genuine  and  lively  taste 
for  my  compatriot ;  I  laughed  at,  I  scolded,  and  I  loved 


70  THE   WKECKER. 

him.  He,  upon  his  side,  paid  me  a  kind  of  doglike  ser- 
vice of  admiration,  gazing  at  me  from  afar  off  as  at  one 
who  had  liberally  enjoyed  those  "advantages"  which  he 
envied  for  himself.  He  followed  at  heel ;  his  laugh  was 
ready  chorus  ;  our  friends  gave  him  the  nickname  of 
"  The  Henchman."  It  was  in  this  insidious  form  that 
servitude  approached  me» 

Pinkerton  and  I  read  and  re-read  the  famous  news: 
he,  I  can  swear,  with  an  enjoyment  as  unalloyed  and  far 
more  vocal  than  my  own.  The  statue  was  nearly  done : 
a  few  days'  work  sufficed  to  prepare  it  for  exhibition; 
the  master  was  approached ;  he  gave  his  consent ;  and 
one  cloudless  morning  of  May  beheld  us  gathered  in  my 
studio  for  the  hour  of  trial.  The  master  wore  his  many- 
hued  rosette ;  he  came  attended  by  two  of  my  French 
fellow-pupils  —  friends  of  mine  and  both  considerable 
sculptors  in  Paris  at  this  hour.  "Corporal  John"  (as 
we  used  to  call  him)  breaking  for  once  those  habits  of 
study  and  reserve  Avhich  have  since  carried  him  so  high 
in  the  opinion  of  the  world,  had  left  his  easel  of  a  morn- 
ing to  countenance  a  fellow-countryman  in  some  sus- 
pense. My  dear  old  Romney  was  there  by  particular 
request ;  for  who  that  knew  him  would  think  a  pleasure 
quite  complete  unless  he  shared  it,  or  not  support  a 
mortification  more  easily  if  he  were  present  to  console  ? 
The  party  was  completed  by  John  Myner,  the  English- 
man ;  by  the  brothers  Stennis,  —  Stennis-awte  and  Stennis- 
frlre,  as  they  used  to  figure  on  their  accounts  at  Barbizon 


I  EXPERIENCE   EXTREMES   OF   FORTUNE.  71 

— a  pair  of  hare-brained  Scots;  and  by  the  inevitable 
Jim,  as  white  as  a  sheet  and  bedewed  with  the  sweat  of 
anxiety. 

I  suppose  I  was  little  better  myself  when  I  unveiled 
the  Genius  of  Muskegon.  The  master  walked  about  it 
seriously ;  then  he  smiled. 

"  It  is  already  not  so  bad,"  said  he,  in  that  funny  Eng- 
lish of  which  he  was  so  proud.  "No,  already  not 
so  bad." 

We  all  drew  a  deep  breath  of  relief;  and  Corporal 
John  (as  the  most  considerable  junior  present)  explained 
to  him  it  was  intended  for  a  public  building,  a  kind  of 
prefecture  — 

"He!  Quoi?"  cried  he,  relapsing  into  French.  " Qu'- 
est-ce  que  vous  me  chantez  la  ?  0,  in  America,"  he  added, 
on  further  information  being  hastily  furnished.  "  That 
is  anozer  sing.     0  very  good,  very  good." 

The  idea  of  the  required  certificate  had  to  be  intro- 
duced to  his  mind  in  the  light  of  a  pleasantry  —  the 
fancy  of  a  nabob  little  more  advanced  than  the  red 
Indians  of  "  Fdnnimore  Cooperr  " ;  and  it  took  all  our 
talents  combined  to  conceive  a  form  of  words  that  would 
be  acceptable  on  both  sides.  One  was  found,  however : 
Corporal  John  engrossed  it  in  his  undecipherable  hand, 
the  master  lent  it  the  sanction  of  his  name  and  flourish, 
I  slipped  it  into  an  envelope  along  with  one  of  the  two 
letters  I  had  ready  prepared  in  my  pocket,  and  as  the 
rest  of  us  moved  off  along  the  boulevard  to  breakfast, 


72  THE  WRECKER. 

Pinkerton  was  detached  in  a  cab  and  duly  committed  it 
to  the  post. 

The  breakfast  was  ordered  at  Lavenue's,  where  no 
one  need  be  ashamed  to  entertain  even  the  master ;  the 
table  was  laid  in  the  garden ;  I  had  chosen  the  bill  of 
fare  myself ;  on  the  wine  question,  we  held  a  council  of 
war  with  the  most  fortunate  results ;  and  the  talk,  as 
soon  as  the  master  laid  aside  his  painful  English,  became 
fast  and  furious.  There  were  a  few  interruptions,  in- 
deed, in  the  way  of  toasts.  The  master's  health  had  to 
be  drunk,  and  he  responded  in  a  little  well-turned  speech, 
full  of  neat  allusions  to  my  future  and  to  the  United 
States ;  my  health  followed ;  and  then  my  father's  must 
not  only  be  proposed  and  drunk,  but  a  full  report  must 
be  despatched  to  him  at  once  by  cablegram  —  an  extrava- 
gance which  was  almost  the  means  of  the  master's  dis- 
solution. Choosing  Corporal  John  to  be  his  confidant 
(on  the  ground,  I  presume,  that  he  was  already  too  good 
an  artist  to  be  any  longer  an  American  except  in  name) 
he  summed  up  his  amazement  in  one  oft-repeated  for- 
mula —  "  C'est  barbare ! "  Apart  from  these  genial  for- 
malities, we  talked,  talked  of  art,  and  talked  of  it  as 
only  artists  can.  Here  in  the  South  Seas  we  talk  schoon- 
ers most  of  the  time  ;  in  the  Quarter  we  talked  art  with 
the  like  unilagging  interest,  and  perhaps  as  much  result. 

Before  very  long,  the  master  went  away;  Corporal 
John  (who  was  already  a  sort  of  young  master)  fol- 
lowed on  his  heels  j   and  the  rank  and  file  were   natu- 


I  EXPERIENCE  EXTREMES  OF  FORTUNE.     73 

rally  relieved  by  their  departure.  We  were  now  among 
eouals;  the  bottle  passed,  the  conversation  sped.  I 
think  I  can  still  hear  the  Stennis  brothers  pour  forth 
their  copious  tirades ;  Dijon,  my  portly  French  fellow- 
student,  drop  witticisms  well-conditioned  like  himself; 
and  another  (who  was  weak  in  foreign  languages)  dash 
hotly  into  the  current  of  talk  with  some  "  Je  trove  que 
pore  oon  sontimong  de  delicacy,  Corot  .  .  .,"  or  some  "Powr 
moi  Corot  est  le  plou  .  .  . ; "  and  then,  his  little  raft  of 
French  foundering  at  once,  scramble  silently  to  shore 
again.  He  at  least  could  understand ;  but  to  Pinkerton, 
I  think  the  noise,  the  wine,  the  sun,  the  shadows  of  the 
leaves,  and  the  esoteric  glory  of  being  seated  at  a  foreign 
festival,  made  up  the  whole  available  means  of  entertain- 
ment. 

We  sat  down  about  half  past  eleven;  I  suppose  it 
was  two  when,  some  point  arising  and  some  particular 
picture  being  instanced,  an  adjournment  to  the  Louvre 
was  proposed,  I  paid  the  score,  and  in  a  moment  we 
were  trooping  down  the  Eue  de  Renne.  It  was  smoking 
hot ;  Paris  glittered  with  that  superficial  brilliancy  which 
is  so  agreeable  to  the  man  in  high  spirits,  and  in  moods 
of  dejection  so  depressing;  the  wine  sang  in  my  ears, 
it  danced  and  brightened  in  my  eyes.  The  pictures  that 
we  saw  that  afternoon,  as  we  sped  briskly  and  loqua- 
ciously through  the  immortal  galleries,  appear  to  me, 
upon  a  retrospect,  the  loveliest  of  all ;  the  comments  we 
exchanged  to  have  touched  the  highest  mark  of  criti' 
cism,  grave  or  gay. 


74  THE   WRECKER. 

It  was  only  when  we  issued  again  from  the  museum 
that  a  difference  of  race  broke  up  the  party.  Dijon  pro- 
posed an  adjournment  to  a  caf6,  there  to  finish  the  after- 
noon on  beer ;  tlie  ekler  Stennis,  revolted  at  the  thought, 
moved  for  the  country,  a  forest  if  possible,  and  a  long 
walk.  At  once  the  English  speakers  rallied  to  the  name 
of  any  exercise :  even  to  me,  who  have  been  often  twitted 
with  my  sedentary  habits,  the  thought  of  country  air 
and  stillness  proved  invincibly  attractive.  It  appeared, 
upon  investigation,  we  had  just  time  to  hail  a  cab  and 
catch  one  of  the  fast  trains  for  Fontainebleau.  Beyond 
the  clothes  we  stood  in,  all  were  destitute  of  what  is 
called  (Avith  dainty  vagueness)  personal  effects ;  and  it 
was  earnestly  mooted,  on  the  other  side,  whether  we  had 
not  time  to  call  upon  the  way  and  pack  a  satchel  ?  But 
the  Stennis  boys  exclaimed  upon  our  effeminacy.  They 
had  come  from  London,  it  appeared,  a  week  before  with 
nothing  but  greatcoats  and  tooth-brushes.  No  baggage  — 
there  was  the  secret  of  existence.  It  was  expensive,  to 
be  sure;  for  every  time  you  had  to  comb  your  hair,  a 
barber  must  be  paid,  and  every  time  you  changed  your 
linen,  one  shirt  must  be  bought  and  another  thrown 
away ;  but  anything  was  better  (argued  these  young  gen- 
tlemen) than  to  be  the  slaves  of  haversacks,  "  A  fellow 
has  to  get  rid  gradually  of  all  material  attachments ; 
that  was  manhood "  (said  they) ;  "  and  as  long  as  you 
were  bound  down  to  anything,  —  house,  umbrella,  or  port- 
manteaU;^ — you  were  still  tethered  by  the  umbilical  cord." 


I  EXPERIENCE  EXTREMES  OF  FORTUNE.     75 

Something  engaging  in  this  theory  carried  the  most  of 
us  away.  The  two  Frenchmen,  indeed,  retired,  scoffing, 
to  their  bock ;  and  Romney,  being  too  poor  to  join  the 
excursion  on  his  own  resources  and  too  proud  to  borrow, 
melted  unobtrusively  away.  Meanwhile  the  remainder 
of  the  company  crowded  the  benches  of  a  cab ;  the  horse 
was  urged  (as  horses  have  to  be)  by  an  appeal  to  the 
pocket  of  the  driver ;  the  train  caught  by  the  inside  of  a 
minute;  and  in  less  than  an  hour  and  a  half  we  were 
breathing  deep  of  the  sweet  air  of  the  forest  and  stretch- 
ing our  legs  up  the  hill  from  Fontainebleau  octroi,  bound 
for  Barbizon.  That  the  leading  members  of  our  party 
covered  the  distance  in  fifty-one  minutes  and  a  half  is 
(I  believe)  one  of  the  historic  landmarks  of  the  colony ; 
but  you  will  scarce  be  surprised  to  learn  that  I  was  some- 
what in  the  rear.  Myner,  a  comparatively  philosophic 
Briton,  kept  me  company  in  my  deliberate  advance ;  the 
glory  of  the  sun's  going  down,  the  fall  of  the  long 
shadows,  the  inimitable  scent  and  the  inspiration  of  the 
woods,  attuned  me  more  and  more  to  walk  in  a  silence 
which  progressively  infected  my  companion ;  and  I  re- 
member that,  when  at  last  he  spoke,  I  was  startled  from 
a  deep  abstraction. 

"Your  father  seems  to  be  a  pretty  good  kind  of  a 
father,"  said  he.  "  Why  don't  he  come  to  see  you  ?  "  I 
was  ready  with  some  dozen  of  reasons,  and  had  more 
in  stock ;  but  Myner,  with  that  shrewdness  which  made 
him  feared  and  admired,  suddenly  fixed  me  with  his  eye- 
glass, and  asked,  "  Ever  press  him  ?  " 


76  THE   WRECKER. 

The  blood  came  in  my  face.  No ;  I  had  never  pressecl 
him ;  I  had  never  even  encouraged  him  to  come.  I  was 
proud  of  him ;  proud  of  his  handsome  looks,  of  his  kind, 
gentle  ways,  of  that  bright  face  he  could  show  when 
others  were  happy ;  proud,  too  (meanly  proud,  if  you 
like)  of  his  great  wealth  and  startling  liberalities.  And 
yet  he  would  have  been  in  the  way  of  my  Paris  life,  of  much 
of  which  he  would  have  disapproved.  I  had  feared  to  ex- 
pose to  criticism  his  innocent  remarks  on  art ;  I  had  told 
myself,  I  had  even  partly  believed,  he  did  not  want  to 
come ;  I  had  been  (and  still  am)  convinced  that  he  was 
sure  to  be  unhappy  out  of  Muskegon ;  in  short,  I  had  a 
thousand  reasons,  good  and  bad,  not  all  of  which  could 
alter  one  iota  of  the  fact  that  I  knew  he  only  waited  for 
my  invitation. 

"  Thank  you,  My ner,"  said  I ;  "  you're  a  much  better 
fellow  than  ever  I  supposed.     I'll  write  to-night." 

"  0,  you're  a  pretty  decent  sort  yourself,"  returned 
Myner,  with  more  than  his  usual  flippancy  of  manner, 
but  (as  I  was  gratefully  aware)  not  a  trace  of  his  occa- 
sional irony  of  meaning. 

Well,  these  were  brave  days,  on  which  I  could  dwell 
forever.  Brave,  too,  were  those  that  followed,  when 
Pinkerton  and  I  walked  Paris  and  the  suburbs,  viewing 
and  pricing  houses  for  my  new  establishment,  or  covered 
ourselves  with  dust  and  returned  laden  with  Chinese 
gods  and  brass  warming-pans  from  the  dealers  in  antiqui- 
ties.    I  found  Pinkerton  well  up  in  the  situation  of  these 


I   EXPERIENCE   EXTREMES   OF   FORTUNE.  77 

establishments  as  well  as  in  the  current  prices,  and  with 
quite  a  smattering  of  critical  judgment ;  it  turned  out  he 
was  investing  capital  in  pictures  and  curiosities  for  the 
States,  and  the  superficial  thoroughness  of  the  creaturd 
appeared  in  the  fact,  that  although  he  would  never  be  a 
connoisseur,  he  was  already  something  of  an  expert 
The  things  themselves  left  him  as  near  as  may  be  cold  ; 
but  he  had  a  joy  of  his  own  in  understanding  how  to 
buy  and  sell  them. 

In  such  engagements  the  time  passed  until  I  might 
very  well  expect  an  answer  from  my  father.  Two  mails 
followed  each  other,  and  brought  nothing.  By  the  third 
I  received  a  long  and  almost  incoherent  letter  of  re- 
morse, encouragement,  consolation,  and  despair.  From 
this  pitiful  document,  which  (with  a  movement  of  piety) 
I  burned  as  soon  as  I  had  read  it,  I  gathered  that  the 
bubble  of  my  father's  wealth  was  burst,  that  he  was  now 
both  penniless  and  sick ;  and  that  I,  so  far  from  expect- 
ing ten  thousand  dollars  to  throw  away  in  juvenile 
extravagance,  must  look  no  longer  for  the  quarterly 
remittances  on  which  I  lived.  My  case  was  hard 
enough ;  but  I  had  sense  enough  to  perceive,  and  de- 
cency enough  to  do  my  duty.  I  sold  my  curiosities,  or 
rather  I  sent  Pinkerton  to  sell  them ;  and  he  had  pre- 
viously bought  and  now  disposed  of  them  so  wisely  that 
the  loss  was  trifling.  This,  with  what  remained  of  my 
last  allowance,  left  me  at  the  head  of  no  less  than  five 
thousand  francs.     Five  hundred  I  reserved  for  my  own 


78  THE   WRECKER. 

immediate  necessities;  the  rest  I  mailed  inside  of  the 
week  to  my  father  at  Muskegon,  where  they  came  in 
time  to  pay  his  funeral  expenses. 

The  news  of  his  death  was  scarcely  a  surprise  and 
scarce  a  grief  to  me.  I  could  not  conceive  my  father  a 
poor  man.  He  had  led  too  long  a  life  of  thoughtless  and 
generous  profusion  to  endure  the  change  ;  and  though  I 
grieved  for  myself,  I  was  able  to  rejoice  that  my  father 
had  been  taken  from  the  battle.  I  grieved,  I  say,  for 
myself ;  and  it  is  probable  there  were  at  the  same  date 
many  thousands  of  persons  grieving  with  less  cause.  I 
had  lost  my  father ;  I  had  lost  the  allowance ;  my  whole 
fortune  (including  what  had  been  returned  from  Muske- 
gon) scarce  amounted  to  a  thousand  francs ;  and  to 
crown  my  sorrows,  the  statuary  contract  had  changed 
hands.  The  new  contractor  had  a  son  of  his  own,  or  else 
a  nephew;  and  it  was  signified  to  me,  with  business-like 
plainness,  that  I  must  find  another  market  for  my  pigs. 
In  the  meanwhile  I  had  given  up  my  room,  and  slept  on 
a  truckle-bed  in  a  comer  of  the  studio,  where  as  I  read 
myself  to  sleep  at  night,  and  when  I  awoke  in  the  morn- 
ing, that  now  useless  bulk,  the  Genius  of  Muskegon,  was 
ever  present  to  my  eyes.  Poor  stone  lady !  born  to  be 
enthroned  under  the  gilded,  echoing  dome  of  the  new 
eapitol,  whither  was  she  now  to  drift  ?  for  what  base 
purposes  be  ultimately  broken  up,  like  an  unseaworthy 
ship  ?  and  what  should  befall  her  ill-starred  artificer, 
standing,  with  his  thousand  francs,  on  the  threshold  of 
a  life  so  hard  as  that  of  the  unbefriended  sculptor  ? 


I  EXPERIENCE  EXTREMES  OF  FORTUNE.     79 

It  "was  a  subject  often  and  earnestly  debated  by  myself 
and  Pinkerton.  In  his  opinion,  I  should  instantly  dis- 
card my  profession.  "  Just  drop  it,  here  and  now,"  he 
would  say.  "  Come  back  home  with  me,  and  let's  throw 
our  whole  soul  into  business.  I  have  the  capital;  you 
bring  the  culture.  Dodd  &  Piiikerton  —  I  never  saw  a 
better  name  for  an  advertisement ;  and  you  can't  think, 
Loudon,  how  much  depends  upon  a  name."  On  my 
side,  I  would  admit  that  a  sculptor  should  possess  one 
of  three  things  —  capital,  influence,  or  an  energy  only 
to  be  qualified  as  hellish.  The  two  first  I  had  now 
lost ;  to  the  third  I  never  had  the  smallest  claim ;  and 
yet  I  wanted  the  cowardice  (or  perhaps  it  was  the 
courage)  to  turn  my  back  on  my  career  without  a  fight. 
I  told  him,  besides,  that  however  poor  my  chances  were 
in  sculpture,  I  was  convinced  they  were  yet  worse  in 
business,  for  which  I  equally  lacked  taste  and  aptitude. 
But  upon  this  head,  he  was  my  father  over  again ;  as- 
sured me  that  I  spoke  in  ignorance ;  that  any  intelligent 
and  cultured  person  was  Bound  to  succeed ;  that  I  must, 
besides,  have  inherited  some  of  my  father's  fitness ;  and, 
at  any  rate,  that  I  had  been  regularly  trained  for  that 
career  in  the  commercial  college. 

"Pinkerton,"  I  said,  "can't  you  understand  that,  as 
long  as  I  was  there,  I  never  took  the  smallest  interest 
in  any  stricken  thing?  The  whole  affair  was  poison 
to  me." 

"  It's  not  possible,"  he  would  cry ;  "  it  can't  be ;  you 


80  THE   Wr.ECKER. 

couldn't  live  in  the  midst  of  it  and  not  feel  the  charm ; 
with  all  your  poetry  of  soul,  you  couldn't  help !  Lou- 
don," he  would  go  on,  "  you  drive  me  crazy.  You  expect 
a  man  to  be  all  broken  up  about  the  sunset,  and  not  to 
care  a  dime  for  a  place  where  fortunes  are  fought  for 
and  made  and  lost  all  day ;  or  for  a  career  that  consists 
in  studying  up  life  till  you  have  it  at  your  finger-ends, 
spying  out  every  cranny  where  you  can  get  your  hand 
in  and  a  dollar  out,  and  standing  there  in  the  midst  — 
one  foot  on  bankruptcy,  the  other  on  a  borrowed  dollar, 
and  the  whole  thing  spinning  round  you  like  a  mill  — 
raking  in  the  stamps,  in  spite  of  fate  and  fortune." 

To  this  romance  of  dickering  I  would  reply  with  the 
romance  (which  is  also  the  virtue)  of  art :  reminding 
him  of  those  examples  of  constancy  through  many 
tribulations,  with  which  the  role  of  Apollo  is  illustrated ; 
from  the  case  of  Millet,  to  those  of  many  of  our  friends 
and  comrades,  who  had  chosen  this  agreeable  mountain 
path  through  life,  and  were  now  bravely  clambering 
among  rooks  and  brambles,  penniless  and  hopeful. 

"You  will  never  understand  it,  Pinkerton,"  I  would 
say.  "  You  look  to  the  result,  you  want  to  see  some 
profit  of  your  endeavours  :  that  is  why  you  could  never 
learn  to  paint,  if  you  lived  to  be  Methusalem.  The 
result  is  always  a  fizzle :  the  eyes  of  the  artist  are  turned 
in;  he  lives  for  a  frame  of  mind.  Look  at  Eomney, 
now.  There  is  the  nature  of  the  artist.  He  hasn't  a 
cent;   and  if  you  offered  him  to-morrow  the  command 


I   EXPERIENCE   EXTREMES   OF   FORTUNE.  81 

of  an  army,  or  the  presidentship  of  the  United  States, 
he  "wouldn't  take  it,  and  yon  know  he  wouldn't." 

"I  suppose  not,"  Pinkerton  would  cry,  scouring  his 
hair  with  both  his  hands ;  "  and  I  can't  see  why ;  I 
can't  see  what  in  fits  he  would  be  after,  not  to ;  I  don't 
seem  to  rise  to  these  views.  Of  course,  it's  the  fault  of 
not  having  had  advantages  in  early  life;  but,  Loudon, 
I'm  so  miserably  low,  that  it  seems  to  me  silly.  The 
fact  is,"  he  might  add  with  a  smile,  "I  don't  seem  to 
have  the  least  use  for  a  frame  of  mind  without  square 
meals ;  and  you  can't  get  it  out  of  my  head  that  it's  a 
man's  duty  to  die  rich,  if  he  can." 

"  What  for  ?  "  I  asked  him  once. 

"0,  I  don't  know,"  he  replied.  "AVhy  in  snakes 
should  anybody  want  to  be  a  sculptor,  if  you  come  to 
that  ?  I  would  love  to  sculp  myself.  But  what  I  can't 
see  is  why  you  should  want  to  do  nothing  else.  It 
seems  to  argue  a  poverty  of  nature." 

Whether  or  not  he  ever  came  to  understand  me  — 
and  I  have  been  so  tossed  about  since  then  that  I 
am  not  very  sure  I  understand  myself  —  he  soon  per- 
ceived that  I  was  perfectly  in  earnest ;  and  after  about 
ten  days  of  argument,  suddenly  dropped  the  subject, 
and  announced  that  he  was  wasting  capital,  and  must 
go  home  at  once.  No  doubt  he  should  have  gone  long 
before,  and  had  already  lingered  over  his  intended  time 
for  the  sake  of  our  companionship  and  my  misfortune ; 


82  THE   WRECKER. 

but  man  is  so  unjustly  minded  that  the  very  fact,  which 
ought  to  have  disarmed,  only  embittered  my  vexation. 
I  resented  his  departure  in  the  light  of  a  desertion ;  I 
would  not  say,  but  doubtless  I  betrayed  it ;  and  something 
hang-dog  in  the  man's  face  and  bearing  led  me  to  believe 
he  was  himself  remorseful.  It  is  certain  at  least  that, 
during  the  time  of  his  preparations,  we  drew  sensibly 
apart  —  a  circumstance  that  I  recall  with  shame.  On 
the  last  day,  he  had  me  to  dinner  at  a  restaurant  which 
he  knew  I  had  formerly  frequented,  and  had  only  for- 
sworn of  late  from  considerations  of  economy.  He 
seemed  ill  at  ease ;  I  was  myself  both  sorry  and  sulky ; 
and  the  meal  passed  with  little  conversation. 

"Now,  Loudon,"  said  he,  with  a  visible  effort,  after 
the  coffee  was  come  and  our  pipes  lighted,  "you  can 
never  understand  the  gratitude  and  loyalty  I  bear  you. 
You  don't  know  what  a  boon  it  is  to  be  taken  up  by  a 
man  that  stands  on  the  pinnacle  of  civilization;  you 
can't  think  how  it's  refined  and  purified  me,  how  it's 
appealed  to  my  spiritual  nature ;  and  I  want  to  tell  you 
that  I  would  die  at  your  door  like  a  dog." 

I  don't  know  what  answer  I  tried  to  make,  but  he 
cut  me  short. 

"  Let  me  say  it  out ! "  he  cried.  "  I  revere  you  for 
your  whole-souled  devotion  to  art ;  I  can't  rise  to  it,  but 
there's  a  strain  of  poetry  in  my  nature,  Loudon,  that 
responds  to  it.  I  want  you  to  carry  it  out,  and  I  mean 
to  help  you." 


I  EXPERIENCE  EXTREMES  OF  FORTUNE.    83 

"Pinkerton,  what  nonsense  is  this  ?  "  I  interrupted. 

"  Now  don't  get  mad,  Loudon ;  this  is  a  phain  piece  of 
business,"  said  he;  "  it's  done  every  day;  it's  even  typical. 
How  are  all  those  fellows  over  here  in  Paris,  Henderson, 
Sumner,  Long  ?  —  it's  all  the  same  story :  a  young  man 
just  plum  full  of  artistic  genius  on  the  one  side,  a  man 
of  business  on  the  other  who  doesn't  know  what  to  do 
with  his  dollars  —  " 

"  But,  you  fool,  you're  as  poor  as  a  rat,"  I  cried. 

"  You  wait  till  I  get  my  irons  in  the  fire ! "  returned 
Pinkerton.  "  I'm  bound  to  be  rich ;  and  I  tell  you  I  mean 
to  have  some  of  the  fun  as  I  go  along.  Here's  your  first 
allowance ;  take  it  at  the  hand  of  a  friend ;  I'm  one  that 
holds  friendship  sacred  as  you  do  yourself.  It's  only  a 
hundred  francs;  you'll  get  the  same  every  month,  and 
as  soon  as  my  business  begins  to  expand  we'll  increase 
it  to  something  fitting.  And  so  far  from  it's  being  a 
favour,  just  let  me  handle  your  statuary  for  the  Ameri- 
can market,  and  I'll  call  it  one  of  the  smartest  strokes  of 
business  in  my  life." 

It  took  me  a  long  time,  and  it  had  cost  us  both  much 
grateful  and  painful  emotion,  before  I  had  finally  man- 
aged to  refuse  his  offer  and  compounded  for  a  bottle  of 
particular  wine.  He  dropped  the  subject  at  last  sud- 
denly with  a  "Never  mind;  that's  all  done  with,"  nor 
did  he  again  refer  to  the  subject,  though  we  passed 
together  the  rest  of  the  afternoon,  and  I  accompanied 


84  THE  WRECKER. 

him,  on  his  departure,  to  the  doors  of  the  -waiting-room 
at  St.  Lazare.  I  felt  myself  strangely  alone ;  a  voice 
told  me  that  I  had  rejected  both  the  counsels  of  wisdom 
and  the  helping  hand  of  friendship;  and  as  I  passed 
through  the  great  bright  city  on  my  homeward  way, 
I  measured  it  for  the  first  time  with  the  eye  of  an 
adversary. 


CHAPTER  V. 

IN   WHICH   I   AM    DOWN    ON   MY   LUCK   IN    PARIS. 

In  no  part  of  the  world  is  starvation  an  agreeable 
business ;  but  I  believe  it  is  admitted  there  is  no  worse 
place  to  starve  in  than  this  city  of  Paris.  The  appear- 
ances of  life  are  there  so  especially  gay,  it  is  so  much 
a  magnified  beer-garden,  the  houses  are  so  ornate,  the 
theatres  so  numerous,  the  very  pace  of  the  vehicles  is  so 
brisk,  that  a  man  in  any  deep  concern  of  mind  or  pain  of 
body  is  constantly  driven  in  upon  himself.  In  his  own 
eyes,  he  seems  the  one  serious  creature  moving  in  a  world 
of  horrible  unreality ;  voluble  people  issuing  from  a  caf6, 
the  queue  at  theatre  doors,  Sunday  cabfuls  of  second-rate 
pleasure-seekers,  the  bedizened  ladies  of  the  pavement, 


I   AM   DOWN   ON  IVIY   LUCK  IN  PAKIS.  85 

the  sliow  in  the  jewellers'  windows  —  all  the  familiar 
sights  contributing  to  flout  his  own  unhappiness,  want, 
and  isolation.  At  the  same  time,  if  he  be  at  all  after 
my  pattern,  he  is  perhaps  supported  by  a  childish  satis- 
faction :  this  is  life  at  last,  he  may  tell  himself,  this  is 
the  real  thing ;  the  bladders  on  which  I  was  set  swim- 
ming are  now  empty,  my  own  weight  depends  upon  the 
ocean ;  by  my  own  exertions  I  must  perish  or  succeed ; 
and  I  am  now  enduring  in  the  vivid  fact,  what  I  so  much 
delighted  to  read  of  in  the  case  of  Lonsteau  or  Lucien, 
Eodolphe  or  Schaunard. 

Of  the  steps  of  my  misery,  I  cannot  tell  at  length. 
In  ordinary  times  what  were  politically  called  "  loans  " 
(although  they  were  never  meant  to  be  repaid)  were 
matters  of  constant  course  among  the  students,  and 
many  a  man  has  partly  lived  on  them  for  years.  But 
my  misfortune  befell  me  at  an  awkward  juncture.  Many 
of  my  friends  were  gone ;  others  were  themselves  in  a 
precarious  situation.  Eomney  (for  instance)  was  re- 
duced to  tramping  Paris  in  a  pair  of  country  sabots,  his 
only  suit  of  clothes  so  imperfect  (in  spite  of  cunningly 
adjusted  pins)  that  the  authorities  at  the  Luxembourg 
suggested  his  withdrawal  from  the  gallery.  Dijon,  too, 
was  on  a  leeshore,  designing  clocks  and  gas-brackets  for 
a  dealer;  and  the  most  he  could  do  was  to  offer  me  a 
corner  of  his  studio  where  I  might  work.  My  own 
studio  (it  will  be  gathered)  I  had  by  that  time  lost ;  and 
in  the  course  of  my  expulsion  the  Genius  of  JMuskegon 


86  THE  WRECKER. 

was  finally  separated  from  her  author.  To  continue  to  pos« 
sess  a  full-sized  statue,  a  man  must  have  a  studio,  a  gal- 
lery, or  at  least  the  freedom  of  a  back  garden.  He  can- 
not carry  it  about  with  him,  like  a  satchel,  in  the  bottom 
of  a  cab,  nor  can  he  cohabit  in  a  garret,  ten  by  fifteen, 
with  so  momentous  a  companion.  It  was  my  first  idea 
to  leave  her  behind  at  my  departure.  There,  in  her 
birthplace,  she  might  lend  an  inspiration,  methought,  to 
my  successor.  But  the  proprietor,  with  whom  I  had 
unhappily  quarrelled,  seized  the  occasion  to  be  disagree- 
able, and  called  upon  me  to  remove  my  property.  For  a 
man  in  such  straits  as  I  now  found  myself,  the  hire  of 
a  lorry  was  a  consideration;  and  yet  even  that  I  could 
have  faced,  if  I  had  had  anywhere  to  drive  to  after  it 
was  hired.  Hysterical  laughter  seized  upon  me,  as  I 
beheld  (in  imagination)  myself,  the  waggoner,  and  the 
Genius  of  Muskegon,  standing  in  the  public  view  of 
Paris,  without  the  shadow  of  a  destination;  perhaps 
driving  at  last  to  the  nearest  rubbish  heap,  and  dumping 
there,  among  the  ordures  of  a  city,  the  beloved  child  of 
my  invention.  From  these  extremities  I  was  relieved 
by  a  seasonable  offer ;  and  I  parted  from  the  Genius  of 
Muskegon  for  thirty  francs.  Where  she  now  stands, 
under  what  name  she  is  admired  or  criticised,  history 
does  not  inform  us ;  but  I  like  to  think  she  may  adorn 
the  shrubbery  of  some  suburban  tea-garden,  where  holi- 
day shop-girls  hang  their  hats  upon  the  mother,  and 
their  swains  (by  way  of  an  approach  of  gallantry)  iden- 
tify the  winged  infant  with  the  god  of  love. 


I  AM   DOWN   ON   MY   LUCK  IN   PARIS.  87 

In  a  certain  cabman's  eating-house  on  the  outer  boule- 
vard I  got  credit  for  my  midday  meal.  Supper  I  was 
supposed  not  to  require,  sitting  down  nightly  to  the 
delicate  table  of  some  rich  acquaintances.  This  arrange- 
ment was  extremely  ill-considered.  My  fable,  credible 
enough  at  first,  and  so  long  as  my  clothes  were  in  good 
order,  must  have  seemed  worse  than  doubtful  after  my 
coat  became  frayed  about  the  edges,  and  my  boots  began 
to  squelch  and  pipe  along  the  restaurant  floors.  The 
allowance  of  one  meal  a  day  besides,  though  suitable 
enough  to  the  state  of  my  finances,  agreed  poorly  with 
my  stomach.  The  restaurant  was  a  place  I  had  often 
visited  experimentally,  to  taste  the  life  of  students  then 
more  unfortunate  than  myself;  and  I  had  never  in 
those  days  entered  it  without  disgust,  or  left  it  without 
nausea.  It  was  strange  to  find  myself  sitting  down  with 
avidity,  rising  up  with  satisfaction,  and  counting  the 
hours  that  divided  me  from  my  return  to  such  a  table. 
But  hunger  is  a  great  magician ;  and  so  soon  as  I  had 
spent  my  ready  cash,  and  could  no  longer  fill  up  on 
bowls  of  chocolate  or  hunks  of  bread,  I  must  depend 
entirely  on  that  cabman's  eating-house,  and  iipon  certain 
rare,  long-expected,  long-remembered  windfalls.  Dijon 
(for  instance)  might  get  paid  for  some  of  his  pot-boiling 
work,  or  else  an  old  friend  would  pass  through  Paris ; 
and  then  I  would  be  entertained  to  a  meal  after  my  own 
soul,  and  contract  a  Latin  Quarter  loan,  which  would 
keep  me  in  tobacco  and  my  morning  coffee  for  a  fort- 


88  THE   WRECKER. 

night.  It  might  be  thought  the  latter  would  appear  the 
more  important.  It  might  be  supposed  that  a  life,  led 
so  near  the  confines  of  actual  famine,  should  have  dulled 
the  nicety  of  my  palate.  On  the  contrary,  the  poorer  a 
man's  diet,  the  more  sharply  is  he  set  on  dainties.  The 
last  of  my  ready  cash,  about  thirty  francs,  was  deliber- 
ately squandered  on  a  single  dinner ;  and  a  great  part  of 
my  time  when  I  was  alone  was  passed  upon  the  details 
of  imaginary  feasts. 

One  gleam  of  hope  visited  me — an  order  for  a  bust 
from  a  rich  Souther nei'.  He  was  free-handed,  jolly  of 
speech,  merry  of  countenance ;  kept  me  in  good  humour 
through  the  sittings,  and  when  they  were  over,  carried 
me  off  with  him  to  dinner  and  the  sights  of  Paris.  I  ate 
well ;  I  laid  on  flesh ;  by  all  accounts,  I  made  a  favour- 
able likeness  of  the  being,  and  I  confess  I  thought  my 
future  was  assured.  But  when  the  bust  was  done,  and 
I  had  despatched  it  across  the  Atlantic,  I  could  never  so 
much  as  learn  of  its  arrival.  The  blow  felled  me ;  I 
should  have  lain  down  and  tried  no  stroke  to  right 
myself,  had  not  the  honour  of  my  country  been  involved. 
For  Dijon  improved  the  opportunity  in  the  European 
style ;  informing  me  (for  the  first  time)  of  the  manners 
of  America :  how  it  was  a  den  of  banditti  without  the 
smallest  rudiment  of  law  or  order,  and  debts  could  be 
there  only  collected  with  a  shotgun.  "  The  whole  world 
knows  it,"  he  would  say ;  "  you  are  alone,  mon  petit 
Loudon,  you  are  alone  to  be  in  ignorance  of  these  facts. 


I  AM  DOWN   ON  MY   LUCK  IN   PARIS.  89 

The  judges  of  the  Sujoreme  Court  fought  but  the  other 
day  with  stilettos  on  the  bench  at  Cincinnati.  You 
should  read  the  little  book  of  one  of  my  friends :  Le 
Touriste  dans  le  Far-West;  you  will  see  it  all  there  in 
good  French."  At  last,  incensed  by  days  of  such  dis- 
cussion, I  undertook  to  prove  to  him  the  contrary,  and 
put  the  affair  in  the  hands  of  my  late  father's  lawyer. 
From  him  I  had  the  gratification  of  hearing,  after  a  due 
interval,  that  my  debtor  was  dead  of  the  yellow  fever  in 
Key  West,  and  had  left  his  affairs  in  some  confusion. 
I  suppress  his  name ;  for  though  he  treated  me  with 
cruel  nonchalance,  it  is  probable  he  meant  to  deal  fairly 
in  the  end. 

Soon  after  this  a  shade  of  change  in  my  reception  at 
the  cabman's  eating-house  marked  the  beginning  of  a 
new  phase  in  my  distress.  The  first  day,  I  told  myself 
it  was  but  fancy ;  the  next,  I  made  quite  sure  it  was 
a  fact ;  the  third,  in  mere  panic  I  stayed  away,  and  went 
for  forty-eight  hours  fasting.  This  was  an  act  of  great 
unreason;  for  the  debtor  who  stays  away  is  but  the 
more  remarked,  and  the  boarder  who  misses  a  meal  is 
sure  to  be  accused  of  infidelity.  On  the  fourth  day, 
therefore,  I  returned,  inwardly  quaking.  The  proprietor 
looked  askance  upon  my  entrance ;  the  waitresses  (who 
were  his  daughters)  neglected  my  wants  and  sniffed  at 
the  affected  joviality  of  my  salutations ;  last  and  most 
plain,  when  I  called  for  a  sidsse  (such  as  was  being 
served  to  all  the  other  diners)  I  was  blujitly  told  there 


90  THE  WRECKER. 

were  no  more.  It  was  obvious  I  was  near  tlie  end  of  my 
tether ;  one  plank  divided  me  from  want,  and  now  I  felt 
it  tremble.  I  passed  a  sleepless  night,  and  the  first 
thing  in  the  morning  took  my  way  to  Myner's  studio. 
It  was  a  step  I  had  long  meditated  and  long  refrained 
from ;  for  I  was  scarce  intimate  with  the  Englishman ; 
and  though  I  knew  him  to  possess  plenty  of  money, 
neither  his  manner  nor  his  reputation  were  the  least 
encouraging  to  beggars. 

I  found  him  at  work  on  a  picture,  which  I  was  able 
conscientiously  to  praise,  dressed  in  his  usual  tweeds, 
plain,  but  pretty  fresh,  and  standing  out  in  disagreeable 
contrast  to  my  own  withered  and  degraded  outfit.  As 
we  talked,  he  continued  to  shift  his  eyes  watchfully  be- 
tween his  handiwork  and  the  fat  model,  who  sat  at  the 
far  end  of  the  studio  in  a  state  of  nature,  with  one  arm 
gallantly  arched  above  her  head.  My  errand  would  have 
been  difiicult  enough  under  the  best  of  circumstances : 
placed  between  Myner,  immersed  in  his  art,  and  the 
white,  fat,  naked  female  in  a  ridiculous  attitude,  I  foimd 
it  quite  impossible.  Again  and  again  I  attempted  to 
approach  the  point,  again  and  again  fell  back  on  com- 
mendations of  the  picture;  and  it  was  not  until  the 
model  had  enjoyed  an  interval  of  repose,  during  which 
she  took  the  conversation  in  her  own  hands  and  regaled 
us  (in  a  soft,  weak  voice)  with  details  as  to  her  husband's 
prosperity,  her  sister's  lamented  decline  from  the  paths 
of  virtue,  and  the  consequent  wrath  of  her  father,  a 


I   AJM   DOWN   ON   MY   LUCK   IN   P^VKIS.  91 

peasant  of  stern  principles,  in  the  vicinity  of  Chalons  on 
the  Marne ;  —  it  was  not,  I  say,  until  after  this  was  over, 
and  I  had  once  more  cleared  my  throat  for  the  attack, 
and  once  more  dropped  aside  into  some  commonplace 
about  the  picture,  that  Myner  himself  brought  me  sud- 
denly and  vigorously  to  the  point. 

"  You  didn't  come  here  to  talk  this  rot,"  said  he. 

"  I«ro,"  I  replied  sullenly ;  "  I  came  to  borrow  money." 

He  painted  awhile  in  silence. 

"  I  don't  think  we  were  ever  very  intimate  ?  "  he  asked. 

"Thank  you,"  said  I.  "I  can  take  my  answer,"  and 
I  made  as  if  to  go,  rage  boiling  in  my  heart. 

"  Of  course  you  can  go  if  you  like,"  said  Myner ;  "  but 
I  advise  you  to  stay  and  have  it  out." 

"  What  more  is  there  to  say  ?  "  I  cried.  "  You  don't 
want  to  keep  me  here  for  a  needless  humiliation  ?  " 

"Look  here,  Dodd,  you  must  try  and  command  your 
temper,"  said  he.  "  This  interview  is  of  your  own  seek- 
ing, and  not  mine ;  if  you  suppose  it's  not  disagreeable  to 
me,  you're  wrong ;  and  if  you  think  I  will  give  you  money 
without  knowing  thoroughly  about  your  prospects,  you 
take  me  for  a  fool.  Besides,"  he  added,  "if  you  come 
to  look  at  it,  you've  got  over  the  worst  of  it  by  now: 
you  have  done  the  asking,  and  you  have  every  reason  to 
know  I  mean  to  refuse.  I  hold  out  no  false  hopes,  but 
it  may  be  worth  your  while  to  let  me  judge." 

Thus  —  I  was  going  to  say  —  encouraged,  I  stumbled 
through  my  story;   told  him  I  had  credit  at  the  cab- 


1)2  THE    WliECKEll. 

man's  eating-house,  but  began  to  think  it  was  drawing  to 
a  close ;  how  Dijon  lent  me  a  corner  of  his  studio,  where 
I  tried  to  model  ornaments,  figures  for  clocks,  Time  with 
the  scythe,  Leda  and  the  swan,  musketeers  for  candle- 
sticks, and  other  kickshaws,  which  had  never  (up  to 
that  day)  been  honoured  with  the  least  approval. 

"  And  your  room  ?  "  asked  Myner. 

"0,  my  room  is  all  right,  I  think,"  said  I.  "She  is 
a  very  good  old  lady,  and  has  never  even  mentioned  her 
bill." 

"  Because  she  is  a  very  good  old  lady,  I  don't  see  why 
she  should  be  fined,"  observed  Myner. 

"What  do  you  mean  by  that  ?  "  I  cried. 

"I  mean  this,"  said  he.  "The  French  give  a  great 
deal  of  credit  amongst  themselves ;  they  find  it  pays  on 
the  whole,  or  the  system  would  hardly  be  continued; 
but  I  can't  see  where  tve  come  in ;  I  can't  see  that  it's 
honest  of  us  Anglo-Saxons  to  profit  by  their  easy  ways, 
and  then  skip  over  the  channel  or  (as  you  Yankees  do) 
across  the  Atlantic." 

"But  I'm  not  proposing  to  skip,"  I  objected. 

"  Exactly,"  he  replied.  "  And  shouldn't  you  ?  There's 
bhe  problem.  You  seem  to  me  to  have  a  lack  of  sym- 
pathy for  the  proprietors  of  cabmen's  eating-houses.  By 
your  own  account  you're  not  getting  on  :  the  longer  you 
stay,  it'll  only  be  the  more  out  of  the  pocket  of  the  dear 
old  lady  at  your  lodgings.  Now  I'll  tell  you  what  I'll 
do :  if  you  consent  to  go,  I'll  pay  your  passage  to  New 


I   AM   DOWN    ON    MY   LUCK    IN    PARIS.  93 

York,  and.  your  railway  fare  and  expenses  to  Muskegon 
(if  I  have  the  name  right)  where  your  father  lived, 
where  he  must  have  left  friends,  and.  where,  no  doubt, 
you'll  find  an  opening.  I  don't  seek  any  gratitude,  for 
of  course  you'll  think  me  a  beast ;  but  I  do  ask  you  to 
pay  it  back  when  you  are  able.  At  any  rate,  that's  all 
I  can  do.  It  might  be  different  if  I  thought  you  a  genius, 
Dodd ;  but  I  don't,  and  I  advise  you  not  to." 

"  I  think  that  was  uncalled  for,  at  least,"  said  I. 

"  I  dare  say  it  was,"  he  returned,  wdth  the  same  steadi- 
ness. "It  seemed  to  me  pertinent;  and  besides,  when 
you  ask  me  for  money  upon  no  security,  you  treat  me 
with  the  liberty  of  a  friend,  and  it's  to  be  presumed  that 
I  can  do  the  like.     But  the  point  is,  do  you  accept  ?  " 

" No,  thank  you,"  said  I ;  "I  have  another  string  to 
my  bow." 

"All  right,"  says  Myner.     "Be  sure  it's  honest." 

"  Honest  ?  honest  ?  "  I  cried.  "'  What  do  you  mean 
by  calling  my  honesty  in  question  ?  " 

"I  won't,  if  you  don't  like  it,"  he  replied,  "You 
seem  to  think  honesty  as  easy  as  Blind  Man's  Buff :  I 
don't.     It's  some  difference  of  definition." 

I  went  straight  from  this  irritating  interview^,  during 
which  Myner  had  never  discontinued  painting,  to  the 
studio  of  my  old  master.  Only  one  card  remained  for 
me  to  play,  and  I  was  now  resolved  to  play  it :  I  must 
drop  the  gentleman  and  the  frock-coat,  and  approach  art 
in  the  workman's  tunic. 


94  THE   WHECKER. 

"  Tiens,  this  little  Dodd ! "  cried  the  master ;  and 
then,  as  his  eye  fell  on  my  dilapidated  clothing,  I 
thought   I   could   perceive   his   countenance  to  darken. 

I  made  my  plea  in  English ;  for  I  knew,  if  he  were 
vain  of  anything,  it  was  of  his  achievement  of  the  island 
tongue.  "Master,"  said  I,  "will  you  take  me  in  your 
studio  again  ?  but  this  time  as  a  workman." 

"  I  sought  your  f az6r  was  immensely  reech,"  said  he. 

I  explained  to  him  that  I  was  now  an  orphan  and 
penniless. 

He  shook  his  head.  "  I  have  betterr  workmen  wait- 
ing at  my  door,"  said  he ;    "  far  betterr  workmen." 

"You  used  to  think  something  of  my  work,  sir,"  I 
pleaded. 

"  Somesing,  somesing  —  y^s  !  "  he  cried ;  "  Enough  for 
a  son  of  a  reech  man  —  not  Enough  for  an  orphan. 
Besides,  I  sought  you  might  learn  to  be  an  artist ;  I  did 
not  sink  you  might  learn  to  be  a  workman." 

On  a  certain  bench  on  the  outer  boulevard,  not  far 
from  the  tomb  of  Napoleon,  a  bench  shaded  at  that  date 
by  a  shabby  tree,  and  commanding  a  view  of  muddy 
roadway  and  blank  wall,  I  sat  down  to  wrestle  with  my 
misery.  The  weather  was  cheerless  and  dark ;  in  three 
days  I  had  eaten  but  once ;  I  had  no  tobacco ;  my  shoes 
were  soaked,  my  trousers  horrid  with  mire ;  my  humour 
and  all  the  circumstances  of  the  time  and  place  lugubri- 
ously attuned.  Here  were  two  men  who  had  both 
spoken  fairly  of  my  work  while  I  was  rich  and  wanted 


I  AM   DOWN   ON   MY  LUCK   EST   PARIS.  95 

nothing ;  now  that  I  was  poor  and  lacked  all :  "  no 
genius,"  said  the  one  ;  "  not  enough  for  an  orphan,"  the 
other ;  and  the  first  offered  me  my  passage  like  a 
pauper  immigrant,  and  the  second  refused  me  a  day's 
wage  as  a  hewer  of  stone  —  plain  dealing  for  an  empty 
belly.  They  had  not  been  insincere  in  the  past ;  they 
were  not  insincere  to-day :  change  of  circumstance  had 
introduced  a  new  criterion  :  that  was  all. 

But  if  I  acquitted  my  two  Job's  comforters  of  insin- 
cerity, I  was  yet  far  from  admitting  them  infallible. 
Artists  had  been  contemned  before,  and  had  lived  to 
turn  the  laugh  on  their  contemners.  How  old  was  Corot 
before  he  struck  the  vein  of  his  own  precious  metal  ? 
When  had  a  young  man  been  more  derided  (or  more 
justly  so)  than  the  god  of  my  admiration,  Balzac  ?  Or  if 
I  required  a  bolder  inspiration,  what  had  I  to  do  but 
turn  my  head  to  where  the  gold  dome  of  the  Invalides 
glittered  against  inky  squalls,  and  recall  the  tale  of  him 
sleeping  there  :  from  the  day  when  a  young  artillery-sub 
could  be  giggled  at  and  nicknamed  Puss-in-Boots  by 
frisky  misses ;  on  to  the  days  of  so  many  crowns  and 
so  many  victories,  and  so  many  hundred  mouths  of 
cannon,  and  so  many  thousand  war-hoofs  trampling  the 
roadways  of  astonished  Europe  eighty  miles  in  front  of 
the  grand  army  ?  To  go  back,  to  give  up,  to  proclaim 
myself  a  failure,  an  ambitious  failure,  first  a  rocket, 
then  a  stick  !  I,  Loudon  Dodd,  who  had  refused  all 
other  livelihoods  with  scorn,  and  been  advertised  in  the 


96  THE   WRECKER. 

Saint  Joseph  Sunday  Herald  as  a  patriot  and  an  artist^ 
to  be  returned  upon  my  native  Muskegon  like  damaged 
goods,  and  go  the  circuit  of  my  father's  acquaintance, 
cap  in  hand,  and  begging  to  sweep  offices !  No,  In' 
Napoleon!  I  would  die  at  my  chosen  trade;  and  tin 
two  who  had  that  day  flouted  me  should  live  to  envy 
my  success,  or  to  weep  tears  of  unavailing  penitence 
behind  my  pauper  coffin. 

Meantime,  if  my  courage  was  still  undiminished,  I  was 
none  the  nearer  to  a  meal.  At  no  great  distance  my 
cabman's  eating-house  stood,  at  the  tail  of  a  muddy  cab- 
rank,  on  the  shores  of  a  wide  thoroughfare  of  mud, 
offering  (to  fancy)  a  face  of  aml^iguous  invitation.  I 
might  be  received,  I  might  once  more  fill  my  belly 
there;  on  the  other  hand,  it  was  perhaps  this  day  the 
bolt  was  destined  to  fall,  and  I  might  be  expelled  in- 
.  stead,  with  vulgar  hubbub.  It  was  policy  to  make  the 
attempt,  and  I  knew  it  was  policy ;  but  I  had  already, 
in  the  course  of  that  one  morning,  endured  too  many 
affronts,  and  I  felt  I  could  rather  starve  than  face 
another.  I  had  courage  and  to  spare  for  the  future, 
none  left  for  that  day  ;  courage  for  the  main  campaign, 
but  not  a  spark  of  it  for  that  preliminary  skirmish  of 
the  cabman's  restaurant.  I  continued  accordingly  to  sit 
upon  my  bench,  not  far  from  the  ashes  of  Napoleon, 
now  drowsy,  now  light-headed,  now  in  complete  mental 
obstruction,  or  only  conscious  of  an  animal  pleasure  in 
quiescence  ;  and  now  thinking,  planning,  and  remember- 


I   AM    DOWN   ON   MY   LUCK   IN   TAHIS.  97 

ing  with  unexampled  clearness,  telling  myself  tales  of 
sudden  wealth,  and  gustfully  ordering  and  greedily  con- 
suming imaginary  meals  :  in  the  course  of  which  I  must 
have  dropped  asleep. 

It  was  towards  dark  that  I  was  suddenly  recalled  to 
famine  by  a  cold  souse  of  rain,  and  sprang  shivering 
to  my  feet.  For  a  moment  I  stood  bewildered:  the 
whole  train  of  my  reasoning  and  dreaming  passed  afresh 
through  my  mind ;  I  was  again  tempted,  drawn  as  if 
with  cords,  by  the  image  of  the  cabman's  eating-house, 
and  again  recoiled  from  the  possibility  of  insult.  "  Qui 
dort  dine,''  thought  I  to  myself ;  and  took  my  homeward 
way  with  wavering  footsteps,  through  rainy  streets  in 
which  the  lamps  and  the  shop-windows  now  began  to 
gleam;   still  marshalling  imaginary  dinners  as  I  went. 

"  Ah,  Monsieur  Dodd,"  said  the  porter,  "  there  has  beer 
a  registered  letter  for  you.  The  facteur  will  bring  it 
again  to-morrow." 

A  registered  letter  for  me,  who  had  been  so  long  with- 
out one  ?  Of  what  it  could  possibly  contain,  I  had  no 
vestige  of  a  guess ;  nor  did  I  delay  myself  guessing ; 
far  less  form  any  conscious  plan  of  dishonesty :  the  lies 
flowed  from  me  like  a  natural  secretion. 

"  0,"  said  I,  "  my  remittance  at  last !  What  a  bother 
I  should  have  missed  it!  Can  you  lend  me  a  hundred 
francs  until  to-morrow  ?  " 

I  had  never  attempted  to  borrow  from  the  porter  till 
that  moment :  the  registered  letter  was,  besides,  my  war- 


98  THE   WRECKER. 

ranty ;  and  he  gave  me  what  he  had  —  three  napoleons 
and  some  francs  in  silver.  I  pocketed  the  money  care- 
lessly, lingered  awhile  chaffing,  strolled  leisurely  to  the 
door;  and  then  (fast  as  my  trembling  legs  could  carry 
me)  round  the  corner  to  the  Caf6  de  Cluny.  French 
waiters  are  deft  and  speedy :  they  were  not  deft  enough 
for  me;  and  I  had  scarce  decency  to  let  the  man  set 
the  wine  upon  the  table  or  put  the  butter  alongside 
the  bread,  before  my  glass  and  my  mouth  were  filled. 
Exquisite  bread  of  the  Caf6  Cluny,  exquisite  first  glass 
of  old  Pomard  tingling  to  my  wet  feet,  indescribable 
first  olive  culled  from  the  hors  d'oeuin'e — I  suppose,  when 
I  come  to  lie  dying,  and  the  lamp  begins  to  grow  dim, 
I  shall  still  recall  your  savour.  Over  the  rest  of  that 
meal,  and  the  rest  of  the  evening,  clouds  lie  thick: 
clouds  perhaps  of  Burgundy;  perhaps,  more  properly, 
of  famine  and  repletion. 

I  remember  clearly,  at  least,  the  shame,  the  despair, 
of  the  next  morning,  when  I  reviewed  what  I  had  done, 
and  how  I  had  swindled  the  poor,  honest  porter;  and, 
as  if  that  were  not  enough,  fairly  burnt  my  ships,  and 
brought  bankruptcy  home  to  that  last  refuge,  my  garret. 
The  porter  would  expect  his  money;  I  could  not  pay 
him ;  here  was  scandal  in  the  house ;  and  I  knew  right 
well,  the  cause  of  scandal  would  have  to  pack.  "  What 
do  you  mean  by  calling  my  honesty  in  question  ? "  I 
had  cried  the  day  before,  turning  upon  Myner.  Ah, 
that  day  before !  the  day  before  Waterloo,  the  day  be- 


I   AM   DOWN   ON   MY   LUCK   IN   PARIS.  99 

fore  the  Flood ;  the  day  before  I  had  sold  the  roof  over 
my  head,  my  future,  and  my  self-respect,  for  a  dinner 
at  the  Caf6  Cluny! 

In  the  midst  of  these  lamentations  the  famous  regis- 
tered letter  came  to  my  door,  with  healing  under  its 
seals.  It  bore  the  postmark  of  San  Francisco,  where 
Pinkerton  was  already  struggling  to  the  neck  in  multi- 
farious affairs :  it  renewed  the  offer  of  an  allowance, 
which  his  improved  estate  permitted  him  to  announce 
at  the  figure  of  two  hundred  francs  a  month;  and  in 
case  I  was  in  some  immediate  pinch,  it  enclosed  an 
introductory  draft  for  forty  dollars.  There  are  a 
thousand  excellent  reasons  why  a  man,  in  this  self- 
helpful  epoch,  should  decline  to  be  dependent  on  an- 
other ;  but  the  most  numerous  and  cogent  considerations 
all  bow  to  a  necessity  as  stern  as  mine ;  and  the  banks 
were  scarce  open  ere  the  draft  was  cashed. 

It  was  early  in  December  that  I  thus  sold  myself 
into  slavery ;  and  for  six  months  I  dragged  a  slowly 
lengthening  chain  of  gratitude  and  uneasiness.  At  the 
cost  of  some  debt  I  managed  to  excel  myself  and 
eclipse  the  Genius  of  Muskegon,  in  a  small  but  highly 
patriotic  Standard  Bearer  for  the  Salon ;  whither  it  was 
duly  admitted,  where  it  stood  the  proper  length  of  days 
entirely  unremarked,  and  whence  it  came  back  to  me 
as  patriotic  as  before.  I  threw  my  whole  soul  (as 
Pinkerton  would  have  phrased  it)  into  clocks  and  can- 
dlesticks;   the   devil  a  candlestick-maker  would   have 


100  THE   WRECKER. 

anything  to  say  to  my  designs.  Even  when  Dijon,  with 
his  infinite  good  humour  and  infinite  scorn  for  all  such 
journey-work,  consented  to  peddle  them  in  indiscrimi- 
nately with  his  own,  the  dealers  still  detected  and 
rejected  mine.  Home  they  returned  to  me,  true  as  th". 
Standard  Bearer ;  who  now,  at  the  head  of  quite  a  regi- 
ment of  lesser  idols,  began  to  grow  an  eyesore  in  the 
scanty  studio  of  my  friend.  Dijon  and  I  have  sat  by 
the  hour,  and  gazed  upon  that  company  of  images.  The 
severe,  the  frisky,  the  classical,  the  Louis  Quinze,  were 
there  —  from  Joan  of  Arc  in  her  soldierly  cuirass  to 
Leda  with  the  swan ;  nay,  and  God  forgive  me  for  a 
man  that  knew  better !  the  humourous  was  represented 
also.  We  sat  and  gazed,  I  say ;  we  criticised,  we  turned 
them  hither  and  thither ;  even  upon  the  closest  inspec- 
tion they  looked  quite  like  statuettes;  and  yet  nobody 
would  have  a  gift  of  them ! 

Vanity  dies  hard ;  in  some  obstinate  cases  it  outlives 
the  man:  but  about  the  sixth  month,  when  I  already 
owed  near  two  hundred  dollars  to  Pinkerton,  and  half  as 
much  again  in  debts  scattered  about  Paris,  I  awoke  one 
morning  with  a  horrid  sentiment  of  oppression,  and 
found  I  was  alone:  my  vanity  had  breathed  her  last 
during  the  night.  I  dared  not  plunge  deeper  in  the  bog ; 
I  saw  no  hope  in  my  poor  statuary;  I  owned  myself 
beaten  at  last ;  and  sitting  down  in  my  nightshirt  beside 
the  window,  whence  I  had  a  glimpse  of  the  tree-tops  at 
the  corner  of  the  boulevard,  and  where  the  music  of  its 


I   AM, DOWN    ON   MY   LUCK   IN    PARIS.  101 

early  traffic  fell  agreeably  upon  my  ear,  I  penned  my 
farewell  to  Paris,  to  art,  to  my  whole  past  life,  and  my 
whole  former  self.  "  I  give  in,"  I  wrote.  "  When  the 
next  allowance  arrives,  I  shall  go  straight  out  West, 
where  you  can  do  what  you  like  with  me." 

It  is  to  be  understood  that  Pinkerton  had  been,  in  a 
sense,  pressing  me  to  come  from  the  beginning ;  depict- 
ing his  isolation  among  new  acquaintances,  ''who  have 
none  of  them  your  culture,"  he  wrote ;  expressing  his 
friendship  in  terms  so  warm  that  it  sometimes  embar- 
rassed me  to  think  how  poorly  I  could  echo  them;  dwell- 
ing upon  his  need  for  assistance ;  and  the  next  moment 
turning  about  to  commend  my  resolution  and  press  me 
to  remain  in  Paris.  "  Only  remember,  Loudon,"  he  would 
write,  "  if  you  ever  do  tire  of  it,  there's  plenty  work 
here  for  you — honest,  hard,  well-paid  work,  developing 
the  resources  of  this  practically  virgin  State.  And  of 
course  I  needn't  say  what  a  pleasure  it  would  be  to  me 
if  we  were  going  at  it  shoulder  to  shoulder^  I  marvel 
(looking  back)  that  I  could  so  long  have  resisted  these 
appeals,  and  continued  to  sink  my  friend's  money  in  a 
manner  that  I  knew  him  to  dislike.  At  least,  when  I 
did  awake  to  any  sense  of  my  position,  I  awoke  to  it 
entirely;  and  determined  not  only  to  follow  his  coun- 
sel for  the  future,  but  even  as  regards  the  past,  to  rectify 
his  losses.  For  in  this  juncture  of  affairs  I  called  to 
mind  that  I  was  not  without  a  possible  resource,  and 
resolved,  at  whatever  cost  of  mortification,  to  beard  the 
Loudon  family  in  their  historic  city. 


UNnn^RPTTY  OF   r.AT.TFOKYTA 
SANTA  BAliJAIiA  COLJUEGE  LlBjRAEY 


102  THE   WRECKER. 

In  the  excellent  Scots'  phrase,  I  made  a  moonliglit  flit- 
ting, a  thing  never  dignified,  but  in  my  case  unusually 
easy.  As  I  had  scarce  a  pair  of  boots  worth  portage, 
I  deserted  the  whole  of  my  effects  without  a  pang. 
Dijon  fell  heir  to  Joan  of  Arc,  the  Standard  Bearer,  and 
the  Musketeers.  He  was  present  when  I  bought  and 
frugally  stocked  my  new  portmanteau ;  and  it  was  at  the 
door  of  the  trunk  shop  that  I  took  my  leave  of  him,  for 
my  last  few  hours  in  Paris  must  be  spent  alone.  It  was 
alone  (and  at  a  far  higher  figure  than  my  finances  war- 
ranted) that  I  discussed  my  dinner ;  alone  that  I  took 
my  ticket  at  Saint  Lazare  ;  all  alone,  though  in  a  carriage 
full  of  people,  that  I  watched  the  moon  shine  on  the 
Seine  flood  with  its  tufted  islets,  on  Rouen  with  her 
spires,  and  on  the  shipping  in  the  harbour  of  Dieppe. 
When  the  first  light  of  the  morning  called  me  from 
troubled  slumbers  on  the  deck,  I  beheld  the  dawn  at 
first  with  pleasure;  I  watched  with  pleasure  the  green 
shores  of  England  rising  out  of  rosy  haze;  I  took  the 
salt  air  with  delight  into  my  nostrils  ;  and  then  all  came 
back  to  me;  that  I  was  no  longer  an  artist,  no  longer 
myself ;  that  I  was  leaving  all  I  cared  for,  and  return- 
ing to  all  that  I  detested,  the  slave  of  debt  and  gratitude, 
a  public  and  a  branded  failure. 

From  this  picture  of  my  own  disgrace  and  wretched- 
ness, it  is  not  wonderful  if  my  mind  turned  with  relief 
to  the  thought  of  Pinkerton,  waiting  for  me,  as  I  knew, 
with    unwearied    affection,   and    regarding   me   with   a 


I  A3H  DOWN   ON   MY   LUCK   IN   PARIS.  103 

respect  that  I  had  never  deserved,  and  might  therefore 
fairly  hope  that  I  should  never  forfeit.  The  inequality 
of  our  relation  struck  me  rudely.  I  must  have  been 
stupid,  indeed,  if  I  could  have  considered  the  history  of 
that  friendship  without  shame  —  I,  who  had  given  so 
little,  who  had  accepted  and  profited  by  so  much.  I 
had  the  whole  day  before  me  in  London,  and  I  deter- 
mined (at  least  in  words)  to  set  the  balance  somewhat 
straighter.  Seated  in  a  corner  of  a  public  place,  and 
calling  for  sheet  after  sheet  of  paper,  I  poured  forth  the 
expression  of  my  gratitude,  my  penitence  for  the  past, 
my  resolutions  for  the  future.  Till  now,  I  told  him,  my 
course  had  been  mere  selfishness.  I  had  been  selfish  to 
my  father  and  to  my  friend,  taking  their  help,  and  deny- 
ing them  (what  was  all  they  asked)  the  poor  gratifica- 
tion of  my  company  and  countenance. 

Wonderful  are  the  consolations  of  literature  !  As  soon 
as  that  letter  was  written  and  posted,  the  consciousness 
of  virtue  glowed  in  my  veins  like  some  rare  vintage. 


104  THE  WRECKER. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

IN   WHICH    I    GO    WEST. 

I  reached  my  uncle's  door  next  morning  in  time  to 
sit  down  with  the  family  to  breakfast.  More  than  three 
years  had  intervened  almost  without  mutation  in  that 
stationary  household,  since  I  had  sat  there  first,  a  young 
American  freshman,  bewildered  among  unfamiliar  dain- 
ties, finnan  haddock,  kippered  salmon,  baps  and  mutton 
ham,  and  had  wearied  my  mind  in  vain  to  guess  what 
should  be  under  the  tea-cosey.  If  there  were  any  change 
at  all,  it  seemed  that  I  had  risen  in  the  family  esteem. 
My  father's  death  once  fittingly  referred  to,  with  a  cere- 
monial lengthening  of  Scotch  ujiper  lips  and  wagging 
of  the  female  head,  the  party  launched  at  once  (God 
help  me)  into  the  more  cheerful  topic  of  my  own  suc- 
cesses. They  had  been  so  pleased  to  hear  such  good 
accounts  of  me ;  I  was  quite  a  great  man  now ;  where 
was  that  beautiful  statue  of  the  Genius  of  Something 
or  other  ?  "  You  haven't  it  here  ?  not  here  ?  Eeally  ?  " 
asks  the  sprightliest  of  my  cousins,  shaking  curls  at 
lue ;  as  though  it  were  likely  I  had  brought  it  in 
the  cab,  or  kept  it  concealed  about  my  person  like  a 
birthday  surprise.  In  the  bosom  of  this  family,  unac- 
customed to  the  tropical  nonsense  of  the  West,  it  be- 
came plain   the    Sunday  Herald  and    poor,   blethering 


IN   WHICH   I   GO   WEST.  105 

Pinkerton  had  been  accepted  for  their  face.  It  is  not 
possible  to  invent  a  circumstance  that  could  have  more 
depressed  me;  and  I  am  conscious  that  I  behaved  all 
through  that  breakfast  like  a  whipt  schoolboy. 

At  length,  the  meal  and  family  prayers  being  both 
happily  over,  I  requested  the  favour  of  an  interview 
with  Uncle  Adam  on  ''the  state  of  my  affairs."  At 
sound  of  this  ominous  expression,  the  good  man's  face 
conspicuously  lengthened;  and  when  my  grandfather, 
having  had  the  proposition  repeated  to  him  (for  he  was 
hard  of  hearing)  announced  his  intention  of  being  pres- 
ent at  the  interview,  I  could  not  but  think  that  Uncle 
Adam's  sorrow  kindled  into  momentary  irritation.  Noth- 
ing, however,  but  the  usual  grim  cordiality  apjjeared 
upon  the  surface ;  and  we  all  three  passed  ceremoniously 
to  the  adjoining  library,  a  gloomy  theatre  for  a  depress- 
ing piece  of  business.  My  grandfather  charged  a  clay 
pipe,  and  sat  tremulously  smoking  in  a  corner  of  the 
fireless  chimney ;  behind  him,  although  the  morning 
was  both  chill  and  dark,  the  window  was  partly  open 
and  the  blind  partly  down :  I  cannot  depict  what  an  air 
he  had  of  being  out  of  place,  like  a  man  shipwrecked 
there.  Uncle  Adam  had  his  station  at  the  business 
table  in  the  midst.  Valuable  rows  of  books  looked  down 
upon  the  place  of  torture ;  and  I  could  hear  sparrows 
chirping  in  the  garden,  and  my  sprightly  cousin  already 
banging  the  piano  and  pouring  forth  an  acid  stream  of 
song  from  the  drawing-room  overhead. 


106  THE   WRECKER. 

It  was  in  these  circumstances  that,  -with  all  brevity  of 
speech  and  a  certain  boyish  sullenness  of  manner,  look- 
ing the  while  upon  the  floor,  I  informed  my  relatives  of 
my  financial  situation :  the  amount  I  owed  Pinkerton ; 
the  hopelessness  of  any  maintenance  from  sculpture  ;  the 
career  offered  me  in  the  States ;  and  how,  before  becoming 
more  beholden  to  a  stranger,  I  had  judged  it  right  to  lay 
the  case  before  my  family. 

"  I  am  only  sorry  you  did  not  come  to  me  at  first," 
said  Uncle  Adam.  "  I  take  the  liberty  to  say  it  would 
have  been  more  decent." 

"I  think  so  too.  Uncle  Adam,"  I  replied;  "but  you 
must  bear  in  mind  I  was  ignorant  in  what  light  you 
might  regard  my  application." 

"  I  hope  I  would  never  turn  my  back  on  my  own  flesh 
and  blood,"  he  returned  with  emphasis ;  but  to  my  anx- 
ious ear,  with  more  of  temper  than  affection.  "  I  could 
never  forget  you  were  my  sister's  son.  I  regard  this  as 
a  manifest  duty.  I  have  no  choice  but  to  accept  the 
entire  responsibility  of  the  position  you  have  made." 

I  did  not  know  what  else  to  do  but  murmur  "  thank 
you." 

"Yes,"  he  pursued,  "and  there  is  something  provi- 
dential in  the  circumstance  that  you  come  at  the  right 
time.  In  my  old  firm  there  is  a  vacancy ;  they  call  them- 
selves Italian  Warehousemen  now,"  he  continued,  regard- 
ing me  with  a  twinkle  of  humour ;  "  so  you  may  think 
yourself  in  luck:  we  were  only  grocers  in  my  day.  I 
shall  place  you  there  to-morrow." 


IN    WHICH   I   GO   WEST.  107 

"  stop  a  moment,  Uncle  Adam,"  I  broke  in.  "  This  is 
not  at  all  what  I  am  asking.  I  ask  you  to  pay  Pinker- 
ton,  who  is  a  poor  man.  I  ask  you  to  clear  my  feet  of 
debt,  not  to  arrange  my  life  or  any  part  of  it." 

"If  I  wished  to  be  harsh,  I  might  remind  you  that 
beggars  cannot  be  choosers,"  said  my  uncle ;  "  and  as  to 
managing  your  life,  you  have  tried  your  own  way  already, 
and  you  see  what  you  have  made  of  it.  You  must  now 
accept  the  guidance  of  those  older  and  (whatever  you 
may  think  of  it)  wiser  than  yourself.  All  these  schemes 
of  your  friend  (of  whom  I  know  nothing,  by  the  by) 
and  talk  of  openings  in  the  West,  I  simply  disregard.  I 
have  no  idea  whatever  of  your  going  troking  across  a 
continent  on  a  wild-goose  chase.  In  this  situation,  which 
I  am  fortunately  able  to  place  at  your  disposal,  and 
which  many  a  well-conducted  young  man  would  be  glad 
to  jump  at,  you  will  receive,  to  begin  with,  eighteen 
shillings  a  week." 

"  Eighteen  shillings  a  week ! "  I  cried.  "  Why,  my 
poor  friend  gave  me  more  than  that  for  nothing ! " 

"  And  I  think  it  is  this  very  friend  you  are  now  trying 
to  repay  ?  "  observed  my  uncle,  with  an  air  of  one  ad- 
vancing a  strong  argument. 

"  Aadam ! "  said  my  grandfather. 

"I'm  vexed  you  should  be  present  at  this  business," 
quoth  Uncle  Adam,  swinging  rather  obsequiously  towards 
the  stonemason  ;  "  but  I  must  remind  you  it  is  of  your 
own  seeking:." 


108  THE   WRECKER. 

"  Aadam ! "  repeated  the  old  man. 

*'  Well,  sir,  I  am  listening,"  says  my  uncle. 

My  grandfather  took  a  puff  or  two  in  silence;  and 
then,  "Ye're  makin'  an  awful  poor  appearance,  Aadam," 
said  he. 

My  uncle  visibly  reared  at  the  affront.  "I'm  sorry 
you  should  think  so,"  said  he,  "  and  still  more  sorry  you 
should  say  so  before  present  company." 

"A  believe  that;  A  ken  that,  Aadam,"  returned  old 
Loudon,  dryly;  "and  the  curiis  thing  is,  I'm  no  very 
carin'.  See  here,  ma  man,"  he  continued,  addressing 
himself  to  me.  "  A'm  your  grandfaither,  amn't  I  not  ? 
Never  you  mind  what  Aadam  says.  A'll  see  justice  din 
ye.     A'm  rich." 

"  Father,"  said  Uncle  Adam,  "  I  would  like  one  word 
with  you  in  private." 

I  rose  to  go. 

"Set  down  upon  your  hinderlands,"  cried  my  grand- 
father, almost  savagely.  "If  Aadam  has  anything  to 
say,  let  him  say  it.  It's  me  that  has  the  money  here ; 
and  by  Gravy  !  I'm  goin'  to  be  obeyed." 

Upon  this  scurvy  encouragement,  it  appeared  that  my 
uncle  had  no  remark  to  offer:  twice  challenged  to 
"  speak  out  and  be  done  with  it,"  he  twice  sullenly  de- 
clined ;  and  I  may  mention  that  about  this  period  of 
the  engagement,  I  began  to  be  sorry  for  him. 

"  See  here,  then,  Jeannie's  yin  ! "  resumed  ray  grand- 
father.    "  A'm  going  to  give  ye  a  set-off.     Your  mither 


IN   WHICH   I   GO    WEST.  109 

■was  always  my  fav'rite,  for  A  never  could  agree  with 
Aadam.  A  like  ye  fine  yoursel' ;  there's  nae  noansense 
aboot  ye ;  ye've  a  fine  nayteral  idee  of  builder's  work ; 
ye've  been  to  France,  where  they  tell  me  they're  grand  at 
the  stuccy.  A  splendid  thing  for  ceilin's,  the  stuccy !  and 
it's  a  vailyable  disguise,  too ;  A  don't  believe  there's  a 
builder  in  Scotland  has  used  more  stuccy  than  me. 
But  as  A  was  sayin',  if  ye'll  follie  that  trade,  with  the 
capital  that  A'm  goin'  to  give  ye,  ye  may  live  yet  to  be 
as  rich  as  mysel'.  Ye  see,  ye  would  have  always  had  a 
share  of  it  when  A  was  gone ;  it  appears  ye're  needin'  it 
now  ;  well,  ye'll  get  the  less,  as  is  only  just  and  proper." 

Uncle  Adam  cleared  his  throat.  "  This  is  very  hand- 
some, father,  said  he ;  "  and  I  am  sure  Loudon  feels  it 
so.  Very  handsome,  and  as  you  say,  very  just ;  but  will 
you  allow  me  to  say  that  it  had  better,  perhaps,  be  put 
in  black  and  white  ?  " 

The  enmity  always  smouldering  between  the  two  men 
at  this  ill-judged  interruption  almost  burst  in  flame. 
The  stonemason  turned  upon  his  offspring,  his  long 
upper  lip  pulled  down,  for  all  the  world,  like  a  mon- 
key's. He  stared  awhile  in  virulent  silence ;  and  then, 
"  Get  Gregg ! "  said  he. 

The  effect  of  these  words  was  very  visible.  "  He  will 
be  gone  to  his  office,"  stammered  my  uncle. 

"  Get  Gregg ! "  repeated  my  grandfather. 

"  I  tell  you,  he  will  be  gone  to  his  office,"  reiterated 
Adam. 


110  THE   WRECKER. 

"And  I  tell  ye,  he's  takin'  his  smoke,"  retorted  the 
old  man. 

"  Very  well,  then,"  cried  my  uncle,  getting  to  his  feet 
with  some  alacrity,  as  upon  a  sudden  change  of  thought, 
"  I  will  get  him  myself." 

"  Ye  will  not ! "  cried  my  grandfather.  "  Ye  will  sit 
there  upon  your  hinderland." 

"  Then  how  the  devil  am  I  to  get  him  ?  "  my  uncle 
broke  forth,  with  not  unnatural  petulance. 

My  grandfather  (having  no  possible  answer)  grinned 
at  his  son  with  the  malice  of  a  schoolboy ;  then  he  rang 
the  bell. 

"  Take  the  garden  key,"  said  Uncle  Adam  to  the  ser- 
vant ;  "  go  over  to  the  garden,  and  if  Mr.  Gregg  the 
lawyer  is  there  (he  generally  sits  under  the  red  haw- 
thorn), give  him  old  Mr.  Loudon's  compliments,  and 
will  he  step  in  here  for  a  moment  ?  " 

"  Mr.  Gregg  the  lawyer ! "  At  once  I  understood  (what 
had  been  puzzling  me)  the  significance  of  my  grand- 
father and  the  alarm  of  my  poor  uncle :  the  stonemason's 
will,  it  was  supposed,  hung  trembling  in  the  balance. 

"  Look  here,  grandfather,"  I  said,  "  I  didn't  want  any 
of  this.  All  I  wanted  was  a  loan  of  (say)  two  hundi-ed 
pounds.  I  can  take  care  of  myself ;  I  have  prospects 
and  opportunities,  good  friends  in  the  States  —  " 

The  old  man  waved  me  down.  "  It's  me  that  speaks 
here,"  he  said  curtly ;  and  we  waited  the  coming  of  the 
lawyer  in  a  triple  silence.     He  appeared  at  last,  the  maid 


IN   WHICH   I   GO   WEST.  Ill 

ushering  him  in  —  a  spectacled,  dry  but  not  ungenial 
looking  man. 

"  Here,  Gregg,"  cried  my  grandfather,  "  Just  a  ques- 
tion.    What  has  Aadam  got  to  do  with  my  will  ?  " 

"  I'm  afraid  I  don't  quite  understand,"  said  the  lawyer, 
staring. 

"  What  has  he  got  to  do  with  it  ?  "  repeated  the  old 
man,  smiting  with  his  fist  upon  the  arm  of  his  chair. 
"  Is  my  money  mine's,  or  is  it  Aadam's  ?  Can  Aadam 
interfere  ?  " 

"0,  I  see,"  said  Mr.  Gregg.  "Certainly  not.  On  the 
marriage  of  both  of  your  children  a  certain  sum  was  paid 
down  and  accepted  in  full  of  legitim.  You  have  surely 
not  forgotten  the  circumstance,  Mr.  Loudon  ?  " 

"  So  that,  if  I  like,"  concluded  my  grandfather,  ham- 
mering out  his  words,  "  I  can  leave  every  doit  I  die  pos- 
sessed of  to  the  Great  Magunn  ?  "  —  meaning  probably 
the  Great  Mogul. 

"No  doubt  of  it,"  replied  Gregg,  with  a  shadow  of  a 
smile. 

"  Ye  hear  that,  Aadam  ?  "  asked  my  grandfather. 

"  I  may  be  allowed  to  say  I  had  no  need  to  hear  it," 
said  my  uncle. 

"  Very  well,"  says  my  grandfather.  "  You  and  Jean- 
nie's  yin  can  go  for  a  bit  walk.  Me  and  Gregg  has 
business." 

When  once  I  was  in  the  hall  alone  with  Uncle  Adam, 
I  turned  to  him,  sick  at  heart.     "  Uncle  Adam,"  I  said, 


112  THE   WRECKER. 

"  you  can  understand,  better  that  I  can  say,  how  very 
painful  all  this  is  to  me." 

"  Yes,  I  am  sorry  you  have  seen  your  grandfather  in 
so  unamiable  a  light,"  replied  this  extraordinary  man. 
"  You  shouldn't  allow  it  to  affect  your  mind  though.  He 
has  sterling  qualities,  quite  an  extraordinary  charac- 
ter ;  and  I  have  no  fear  but  he  means  to  behave  hand- 
somely to  you." 

His  composure  was  beyond  my  imitation :  the  house 
could  not  contain  me,  nor  could  I  even  promise  to  return 
to  it:  in  concession  to  which  weakness,  it  was  agreed 
that  I  should  call  in  about  an  hour  at  the  office  of  the 
lawyer,  whom  (as  he  left  the  library)  Uncle  Adam 
should  waylay  and  inform  of  the  arrangement.  I  sup- 
pose there  was  never  a  more  topsy-turvy  situation  :  you 
would  have  thought  it  was  I  who  had  suffered  some 
rebuff,  and  that  iron-sided  Adam  was  a  generous  con- 
queror who  scorned  to  take  advantage. 

It  was  plain  enough  that  I  was  to  be  endowed:  to 
what  extent  and  upon  what  conditions  I  was  now  left 
for  an  hour  to  meditate  in  the  wide  and  solitary  thorough- 
fares of  the  new  town,  taking  counsel  with  street-corner 
statues  of  George  IV.  and  William  Pitt,  improving  my 
mind  with  the  pictures  in  the  window  of  a  music-shop, 
and  renewing  my  acquaintance  with  Edinburgh  east 
wind.  By  the  end  of  the  hour  I  made  my  way  to  Mr. 
Gregg's  office,  where  I  was  placed,  with  a  few  appro- 
priate words,  in  possession  of  a  cheque  for  two  thousand 
pounds  and  a  small  parcel  of  architectural  works. 


IN  WHICH   I   GO   WEST.  113 

"Mr.  Loudon  bids  me  add,"  continued  the  lawyer, 
consulting  a  little  sheet  of  notes,  "  that  although  these 
volumes  are  very  valuable  to  the  practical  builder,  you 
must  be  careful  not  to  lose  originality.  He  tells  you 
also  not  to  be  'hadden  doun'  —  his  own  expression  — 
by  the  theory  of  strains,  and  that  Portland  cement, 
properly  sanded,  will  go  a  long  way." 

I  smiled,  and  remarked  that  I  supposed  it  would. 

"  I  once  lived  in  one  of  my  excellent  client's  houses," 
observed  the  lawyer ;  "  and  I  was  tempted,  in  that  case, 
to  think  it  had  gone  far  enough." 

"  Under  these  circumstances,  sir,"  said  I,  *'  you  will 
be  rather  relieved  to  hear  that  I  have  no  intention  of 
becoming  a  builder." 

At  this,  he  fairly  laughed ;  and,  the  ice  being  broken, 
I  was  able  to  consult  him  as  to  my  conduct.  He  in- 
sisted I  must  return  to  the  house,  at  least,  for  luncheon, 
and  one  of  my  walks  with  Mr.  Loudon.  "For  the 
evening,  I  will  furnish  you  with  an  excuse,  if  you 
please,"  said  he,  "by  asking  you  to  a  bachelor  dinner 
with  myself.  But  the  luncheon  and  the  walk  are  una- 
voidable. He  is  an  old  man,  and,  I  believe,  really 
fond  of  you ;  he  would  naturally  feel  aggrieved  if  there 
were  any  appearance  of  avoiding  him;  and  as  for  jNIr. 
Adam,  do  you  know,  I  think  your  delicacy  out  of  place. 
.  .  .  And  now,  Mr.  Dodd,  what  are  you  to  do  with  this 
money  ?  " 

Ay,   there   was   the   question.      With   two   thousand 


114  THE   WRECKER. 

pounds  —  fifty  thousand  francs  —  I  might  return  to 
Paris  and  the  arts,  and  be  a  prince  and  millionnaire  in 
that  thrifty  Latin  Quarter.  I  think  I  had  the  grace, 
with  one  corner  of  my  mind,  to  be  glad  that  I  had  sent 
the  London  letter :  I  know  very  well  that  with  the  rest 
and  worst  of  me,  I  repented  bitterly  of  that  precipitate 
act.  On  one  point,  however,  my  whole  multiplex  estate 
of  man  was  unanimous :  the  letter  being  gone,  there  was 
no  help  but  I  must  follow.  The  money  was  accordingly 
divided  in  two  unequal  shares  :  for  the  first,  Mr.  Gregg 
got  me  a  bill  in  the  name  of  Dijon  to  meet  my  liabilities 
in  Paris ;  for  the  second,  as  I  had  already  cash  in  hand 
for  the  expenses  of  my  journey,  he  supplied  me  with 
drafts  on  San  Francisco. 

The  rest  of  my  business  in  Edinburgh,  not  to  dwell  on 
a  very  agreeable  dinner  with  the  lawyer  or  the  horrors 
of  the  family  luncheon,  took  the  form  of  an  excursion 
with  the  stonemason,  who  led  me  this  time  to  no  suburb 
or  work  of  his  old  hands,  but  with  an  impulse  both 
natural  and  pretty,  to  that  more  enduring  home  which 
he  had  chosen  for  his  clay.  It  was  in  a  cemetery,  by 
some  strange  chance,  immured  within  the  bulwarks  of 
a  prison ;  standing,  besides,  on  the  margin  of  a  cliff, 
crowded  with  elderly  stone  memorials,  and  green  with 
turf  and  ivy.  The  east  wind  (which  I  thought  too 
harsh  for  the  old  man)  continually  shook  the  boughs, 
and  the  thin  sun  of  a  Scottish  summer  drew  their  danc- 
ing shadows. 


IN   WHICH   I   GO   WEST.  115 

"  I  wanted  ye  to  see  the  place,"  said  lie.  "  Yon's  the 
stane.  Euphemia  Ross:  that  was  my  goodwife,  your 
grandmither  —  hoots !  I'm  wrong ;  that  was  my  first 
yin ;  I  had  no  bairns  by  her ;  —  yours  is  the  second,  Mary 
Murray,  Born  1819,  Died  1850:  that's  her  —  a  fine, 
plain,  decent  sort  of  a  creature,  tak'  her  athegether. 
Alexander  Loudon,  Born  Seventeen  Ninety-Twa,  Died  — 
and  then  a  hole  in  the  ballant :  that's  me.  Alexander's 
my  name.  They  ca'd  me  Ecky  when  I  was  a  boy.  Eh, 
Ecky  !  ye're  an  awful  auld  man ! " 

I  had  a  second  and  sadder  experience  of  graveyards 
at  my  next  alighting-place,  the  city  of  Muskegon,  now 
rendered  conspicuous  by  the  dome  of  the  new  capitol 
encaged  in  scaffolding.  It  was  late  in  the  afternoon 
when  I  arrived,  and  raining ;  and  as  I  walked  in  great 
streets,  of  the  very  name  of  which  I  was  quite  igno- 
rant —  double,  treble,  and  quadruple  lines  of  horse-cars 
jingling  by  —  hundred-fold  wires  of  telegraph  and  tele- 
phone matting  heaven  above  my  head  —  huge,  staring 
houses,  garish  and  gloomy,  flanking  me  from  either  hand 
—  the  thought  of  the  Eue  Eacine,  ay,  and  of  the  cab- 
man's eating-house,  brought  tears  to  my  eyes.  The 
whole  monotonous  Babel  had  grown,  or  I  should  rather 
say  swelled,  with  such  a  leap  since  my  departure,  that  I 
must  continually  inquire  my  way,  and  the  very  cemetery 
was  brand  new.  Death,  however,  had  been  active ;  the 
graves  were  already  numerous,  and  I  must  pick  my  way 
in  the  rain,  among  the  tawdry  sepulchres  of  millionnaires, 


116  THE   WRECKER. 

and  past  the  plain,  black  crosses  of  Hungarian  labourers, 
till  chance  or  instinct  led  me  to  the  place  that  was  my 
father's.  The  stone  had  been  erected  (I  knew  already) 
"  by  admiring  friends " ;  I  could  now  judge  their  taste 
in  monuments ;  their  taste  in  literature,  methought,  I 
could  imagine,  and  I  refrained  from  drawing  near  enough 
to  read  the  terms  of  the  inscription.  But  the  name  was 
in  larger  letters  and  stared  at  me  —  James  K.  Docld. 
What  a  singular  thing  is  a  name,  I  thought ;  how  it 
clings  to  a  man,  and  continually  misrepresents,  and  then 
survives  him ;  and  it  flashed  across  my  mind,  with  a 
mixture  of  regret  and  bitter  mirth,  that  I  had  never 
known,  and  now  probably  never  should  know,  what  the 
K  had  represented.  King,  Kilter,  Kay,  Kaiser,  I  went, 
running  over  names  at  random,  and  then  stumbled  with 
ludicrous  misspelling  on  Kornelius,  and  had  nearly 
laughed  aloud.  I  have  never  been  more  childish  ;  I  sup- 
pose (although  the  deeper  voices  of  my  nature  seemed 
all  dumb)  because  I  have  never  been  more  moved.  And 
at  this  last  incongruous  antic  of  my  nerves,  I  was  seized 
with  a  panic  of  remorse  and  fled  the  cemetery. 

Scarce  less  funereal  was  the  rest  of  my  experience  in 
Muskegon,  where,  nevertheless,  I  lingered,  visiting  my 
father's  circle,  for  some  days.  It  was  in  piety  to  him 
I  lingered;  and  I  might  have  spared  myself  the  pain. 
His  memory  was  already  quite  gone  out.  For  his  sake, 
indeed,  I  was  made  welcome  ;  and  for  mine  the  conver- 
sation rolled  awhile  with  laborious  effort  on  the  virtues 


"l  WANTED   YE  TO   SEE  THE   PLACE,"   SAID   HE. 


IN   WHICH   I   GO   WEST.  117 

of  the  deceased.  His  former  comrades  dwelt,  in  my 
company,  upon  his  business  talents  or  his  generosity 
for  public  purposes;  when  my  back  was  turned,  they 
remembered  him  no  more.  My  father  had  loved  me ; 
I  had  left  him  alone  to  live  and  die  among  the  indif- 
ferent ;  now  I  returned  to  find  him  dead  and  buried 
and  forgotten.  Unavailing  penitence  translated  itself 
in  my  thoughts  to  fresh  resolve.  There  was  another 
poor  soul  who  loved  me:  Pinkerton.  I  must  not  be 
guilty  twice  of  the  same  error. 

A  week  perhaps  had  been  thus  wasted,  nor  had  I 
prepared  my  friend  for  the  delay.  Accordingly,  when 
I  had  changed  trains  at  Council  Bluffs,  I  was  aware  of 
a  man  appearing  at  the  end  of  the  car  with  a  telegram 
in  his  hand  and  inquiring  whether  there  were  any  one 
aboard  "  of  the  name  of  London  Dodd  ?  "  I  thought 
the  name  near  enough,  claimed  the  despatch,  and  found 
it  was  from  Pinkerton :  "  What  day  do  you  arrive  ? 
Awfully  important."  I  sent  him  an  answer  giving  day 
and  hour,  and  at  Ogden  found  a  fresh  despatch  awaiting 
me :  "  That  will  do.  Unspeakable  relief.  Meet  you  at 
Sacramento."  In  Paris  days  I  had  a  private  name  for 
Pinkerton  :  '^  The  Irrepressible  "  was  what  I  had  called 
him  in  hours  of  bitterness ;  and  the  name  rose  once 
more  on  my  lips.  What  mischief  was  he  up  to  now? 
What  new  bowl  was  my  benignant  monster  brewing  for 
his  Frankenstein?  In  what  new  imbroglio  should  I 
alight  on  the  Pacific  coast?    My  trust  in  the  man  was 


118  THE   WRECKER, 

entire,  and  my  distrust  perfect.  I  knew  he  would  never 
mean  amiss ;  but  I  was  convinced  he  would  almost  never 
(in  my  sense)  do  aright. 

I  suppose  these  vague  anticipations  added  a  shade  of 
gloom  to  that  already  gloomy  place  of  travel :  Nebraska, 
Wyoming,  Utah,  Nevada,  scowled  in  my  face  at  least, 
and  seemed  to  point  me  back  again  to  that  other  native 
land  of  mine,  the  Latin  Quarter.  But  when  the  Sierras 
had  been  climbed,  and  the  train,  after  so  long  beating 
and  panting,  stretched  itself  upon  the  downward  track 
—  when  I  beheld  that  vast  extent  of  prosperous  country 
rolling  seaward  from  the  woods  and  the  blue  mountains, 
that  illimitable  spread  of  rippling  corn,  the  trees  grow- 
ing and  blowing  in  the  merry  weather,  the  country  boys 
thronging  aboard  the  train  with  figs  and  peaches,  and 
the  conductors,  and  the  very  darky  stewards,  visibly 
exulting  in  the  change  —  up  went  my  soul  like  a  balloon ; 
Care  fell  from  his  perch  upon  my  shoulders;  and  when 
I  spied  my  Pinkerton  among  the  crowd  at  Sacramento, 
I  thought  of  nothing  but  to  shout  and  wave  for  him, 
and  grasp  him  by  the  hand,  like  what  he  was  —  my 
dearest  friend. 

"0  Loudon!"  he  cried.  "Man,  how  I've  pined  for 
you !  And  you  haven't  come  an  hour  too  soon.  You're 
known  here  and  waited  for;  I've  been  booming  you 
already ;  you're  billed  for  a  lecture  to-morrow  night : 
Student  Life  in  Paris,  Grave  and  Gay  :  twelve  hundred 
places  booked  at  the  last  stock !     Tut,  man,  you're  look- 


IN    WHICH   I   GO   WEST.  119 

ing  thin  !  Here,  try  a  drop  of  this."  And  he  produced 
a  case  bottle,  staringly  labelled  Pinkerton's  Thirteen 
Star  Golden  State  Brandy,  Warranted  Entire. 

"  God  bless  me ! "  said  I,  gasping  and  winking  after 
my  first  plunge  into  this  fiery  fluid.  "  And  what  does 
'  Warranted  Entire '  mean  ?  " 

"  Why,  Loudon !  you  ought  to  know  that ! "  cried 
Pinkerton.  "It's  real,  copper-bottomed  English;  you 
see  it  on  all  the  old-time  wayside  hostelries  over  there." 

"But  if  I'm  not  mistaken,  it  means  something  War- 
ranted Entirely  different,"  said  I,  "and  applies  to  the 
public  house,  and  not  the  beverages  sold." 

"  It's  very  possible,"  said  Jim,  quite  unabashed.  "  It's 
effective,  anyway ;  and  I  can  tell  you,  sir,  it  has  boomed 
that  spirit :  it  goes  now  by  the  gross  of  cases.  By  the 
way,  I  hope  you  Avon't  mind ;  I've  got  your  por- 
trait all  over  San  Erancisco  for  the  lecture,  enlarged 
from  that  carte  de  visit :  H.  Loudon  Dodd,  the  Americo- 
Parisienne  Sculptor.  Here's  a  proof  of  the  small  hand- 
bills ;  the  posters  are  the  same,  only  in  red  and  blue, 
and  the  letters  fourteen  by  one." 

I  looked  at  the  handbill,  and  my  head  turned.  What 
was  the  use  of  words  ?  why  seek  to  explain  to  Pinkerton 
the  knotted  horrors  of  "  Americo-Parisienne  "  ?  He  took 
an  early  occasion  to  point  it  out  as  "  rather  a  good 
phrase ;  gives  the  two  sides  at  a  glance  :  I  wanted  the 
lecture  written  up  to  that."  Even  after  we  had  reached 
San  Francisco,  and  at  the  actual  physical  shock  of  my 


120  THE    WRECKER. 

own  effigy  placarded  on  the  streets  I  had  broken  forth 
in  petulant  words,  he  never  comprehended  in  the  least 
the  ground  of  my  aversion. 

"  If  I  had  only  known  you  disliked  red  lettering ! " 
was  as  high  as  he  could  rise.  "  You  are  perfectly  right : 
a  clear-cut  black  is  preferable,  and  shows  a  great  deal 
further.  The  only  thing  that  pains  me  is  the  portrait  : 
I  own  I  thought  that  a  success.  I'm  dreadfully  and 
truly  sorry,  my  dear  fellow :  I  see  now  it's  not  what  you 
had  a  right  to  expect;  but  I  did  it,  Loudon,  for  the  best; 
and  the  press  is  all  delighted." 

At  the  moment,  sweeping  through  green  tule  swamps, 
I  fell  direct  on  the  essential.  "  But,  Pinkerton,"  I  cried, 
"this  lecture  is  the  maddest  of  your  madnesses.  How 
can  I  prepare  a  lecture  in  thirty  hours  ?  " 

"  All  done,  Loudon  !  "  he  exclaimed  in  triumph.  "  All 
ready.  Trust  me  to  pull  a  piece  of  business  through. 
You'll  find  it  all  type-written  in  my  desk  at  home.  I 
put  the  best  talent  of  San  Francisco  on  the  job :  Harry 
Miller,  the  brightest  pressman  in  the  city." 

And  so  he  rattled  on,  beyond  reach  of  my  modest 
protestations,  blurting  out  his  complicated  interests, 
crying  up  his  new  acquaintances,  and  ever  and  again 
hungering  to  introduce  me  to  some  *' whole-souled, 
grand  fellow,  as  sharp  as  a  needle,"  from  whom,  and 
the  very  thought  of  whom,  my  spirit  shrank  instinct- 
ively. 


IN   WHICH   I   GO   WEST.  121 

Well,  I  was  in  for  it :  in  for  Pinkerton,  in  for  the  por« 
trait,  in  for  the  type-written  lecture.  One  promise  I 
extorted  —  that  I  was  never  again  to  be  committed  in 
ignorance ;  even  for  that,  when  1  saw  how  its  extortion 
puzzled  and  depressed  the  Irrepressible,  my  soul  re- 
pented me ;  and  in  all  else  I  suffered  myself  to  be  led 
uncomplaining  at  his  chariot  wheels.  The  Irrepressible, 
did  I  say  ?     The  Irresistible  were  nigher  truth. 

But  the  time  to  have  seen  me  was  when  I  sat  down 
to  Harry  Miller's  lecture.  He  was  a  facetious  dog,  this 
Harry  Miller;  he  had  a  gallant  way  of  skirting  the 
indecent  which  (in  my  case)  produced  physical  nausea; 
and  he  could  be  sentimental  and  even  melodramatic 
about  grisettes  and  starving  genius.  I  found  he  had 
enjoyed  the  benefit  of  my  correspondence  with  Pinkerton: 
adventures  of  my  own  were  here  and  there  horridly  mis- 
represented, sentiments  of  my  own  echoed  and  exagger- 
ated till  I  blushed  to  recognise  them.  I  will  do  Harry 
Miller  justice  :  he  must  have  had  a  kind  of  talent,  almost 
of  genius ;  all  attempts  to  lower  his  tone  proving  fruit- 
less, and  the  Harry-Millerism  ineradicable.  Nay,  the 
monster  had  a  certain  key  of  style,  or  want  of  style,  so 
that  certain  milder  passages,  which  I  sought  to  introduce, 
discorded  horribly,  and  impoverished  (if  that  were  pos- 
sible) the  general  effect. 

By  an  early  hour  of  the  numbered  evening  I  luiyht 
have  been  observed  at  the  sign  of  the  Poodle  Dog,  dining 
with  my  agent :  so  Pinkerton  delighted  to  describe  him- 


122  THE   WRECKER. 

self.  Thence,  like  an  ox  to  the  slaughter,  he  led  me 
to  the  hall,  where  I  stood  presently  alone,  confronting 
assembled  San  Francisco,  with  no  better  allies  than  a 
table,  a  glass  of  water,  and  a  mass  of  manuscript  and  type- 
work,  representing  Harry  Miller  and  myself.  I  read  the 
lecture ;  for  I  had  lacked  both  time  and  will  to  get  the 
trash  by  heart  —  read  it  hurriedly,  humbly,  and  with 
visible  shame.  Now  and  then  I  would  catch  in  the 
auditorium  an  eye  of  some  intelligence,  now  and  then, 
in  the  mauuscrij^t,  would  stumble  on  a  richer  vein  of 
Harry  Miller,  and  my  heart  would  fail  me,  and  I  gabbled. 
The  audience  yawned,  it  stirred  uneasily,  it  muttered, 
grumbled,  and  broke  forth  at  last  in  articulate  cries  of 
"  Speak  up ! "  and  "  Xobody  can  hear ! "  I  took  to  skip- 
ping, and  being  extremely  ill-acquainted  with  the  coun- 
try, almost  invariably  cut  in  again  in  the  unintelligible 
midst  of  some  new  topic.  What  struck  me  as  extremely 
ominous,  these  misfortunes  were  allowed  to  pass  with- 
out a  laugh.  Indeed,  I  was  beginning  to  fear  the 
worst,  and  even  personal  indignity,  when  all  at  once 
the  humour  of  the  thing  broke  upon  me  strongly.  I 
could  have  laughed  aloud;  and  being  again  summoned 
to  speak  up,  I  faced  my  patrons  for  the  first  time  with 
a  smile.  "Very  well,"  I  said,  "I  will  try;  though  I 
don't  suppose  anybody  wants  to  hear,  and  I  can't  see 
why  anybody  should."  Audience  and  lecturer  laughed 
together  till  the  tears  ran  down;  vociferous  and  re- 
peated applause  hailed  my  impromptu  sally.     Another 


IN  WHICH  I  GO   WEST.  123 

hit  which.  I  made  but  a  little  after,  as  I  turned  three 
pages  of  the  copy :  "  You  see  I  am  leaving  out  as  much 
as  I  possibly  can,"  increased  the  esteem  with  which  my 
patrons  had  begun  to  regard  me ;  and  when  I  left  the 
stage  at  last,  my  departing  form  was  cheered  with 
laughter,  stamping,  shouting,  and  the  waving  of  hats. 

Pinkerton  was  in  the  waiting-room,  feverishly  jotting 
in  his  pocket-book.  As  he  saw  me  enter,  he  sprang  up, 
and  I  declare,  the  tears  were  trickling  on  liis  cheeks. 

"  My  dear  boy,"  he  cried,  "  I  can  never  forgive  myself, 
and  you  can  never  forgive  me.  Never  mind :  I  did  it 
for  the  best.  And  how  nobly  you  clung  on  !  I  dreaded 
we  should  have  had  to  return  the  money  at  the  doors." 

"  It  would  have  been  more  honest  if  we  had,"  said  I. 

The  pressmen  followed  me,  Harry  Miller  in  the  front 
ranks ;  and  I  was  amazed  to  find  them,  on  the  whole,  a 
pleasant  set  of  lads,  probably  more  sinned  against  than 
sinning,  and  even  Harry  Miller  apparently  a  gentleman. 
I  had  in  oysters  and  champagne  —  for  the  receipts  were 
excellent  —  and  being  in  a  high  state  of  nervous  tension, 
kept  the  table  in  a  roar.  Indeed,  I  was  never  in  my 
life  so  well  inspired  as  when  I  described  my  vigil  over 
Harry  Miller's  literature  or  the  series  of  my  emotions 
as  I  faced  the  audience.  The  lads  vowed  I  was  the 
soul  of  good  company  and  the  prince  of  lecturers ;  and 
—  so  wonderful  an  institution  is  the  popular  press  —  if 
you  had  seen  the  notices  next  day  in  all  the  papers,  you 
must  have  supposed  my  evening's  entertainment  an 
unqualified  success. 


124  THE   WRECKER. 

I  was  in  excellent  spirits  when  I  returned  home  that 
night,  but  the  miserable  Pinkerton  sorrowed  for  us 
both. 

"0,  Loudon,"  he  said,  "I  shall  never  forgive  myself. 
When  I  saw  you  didn't  catch  on  to  the  idea  of  the  lec- 
ture, I  should  have  given  it  myself ! " 


CHAPTER  VII. 

IRONS    IN    THE    FIRE. 

02)es  Strepitumque. 

The  food  of  the  body  differs  not  so  greatly  for 
the  fool  or  the  sage,  the  elephant  or  the  cock-sparrow; 
and  similar  chemical  elements,  variously  disguised, 
support  all  mortals.  A  brief  study  of  Pinkerton  in 
his  new  setting  convinced  me  of  a  kindred  truth  about 
that  other  and  mental  digestion,  by  which  we  extract 
what  is  called  "fun  for  our  money"  out  of  life. 
In  the  same  spirit  as  a  schoolboy,  deep  in  Mayne  Reid, 
handles  a  dummy  gun  and  crawls  among  imaginary 
forests,  Pinkerton  sped  through  Kearney  Street  upon 
his  daily  business,  representing  to  himself  a  highly 
coloured  part  in  life's  performance,  and  happy  for  hours 
if  he  should  have  chanced  to  brush  against  a  million- 


IRONS   IN   THE   FIEE.  125 

naire.  Reality  was  his  romance;  he  gloried  to  be  thus 
engaged ;  he  wallowed  in  his  business.  Suppose  a  man 
to  dig  up  a  galleon  on  the  Coromandel  coast,  his  rakish 
schooner  keeping  the  while  an  offing  under  easy  sail, 
and  he,  by  the  blaze  of  a  great  fire  of  wreckwood,  to 
measure  ingots  by  the  bucketful  on  the  uproarious 
beach:  such  an  one  might  realise  a  greater  material 
spoil ;  he  should  have  no  more  profit  of  romance  than 
Pinkerton  when  he  cast  up  his  weekly  balance-sheet  in 
a  bald  office.  Every  dollar  gained  was  like  something 
brought  ashore  from  a  mysterious  deep;  every  venture 
made  was  like  a  diver's  plunge;  and  as  he  thrust  his 
bold  hand  into  the  plexus  of  the  money-market,  he  was 
delightedly  aware  of  'how  he  shook  the  pillars  of  exist- 
ence, turned  out  men  (as  at  a  battle-cry)  to  labour  in  far 
countries,  and  set  the  gold  twitching  in  the  drawers  of 
millionnaires. 

I  could  never  fathom  the  full  extent  of  his  specu- 
lations ;  but  there  were  five  separate  businesses  which 
he  avowed  and  carried  like  a  banner.  The  Tliirteen  Star 
Golden  State  Brandy,  Warranted  Entire  (a  very  flagrant 
distillation)  filled  a  great  part  of  his  thoughts  and  was 
kept  before  the  public  in  an  eloquent  but  misleading 
treatise:  Why  drink  French  Brandy?  A  Word  to  the 
Wise.  He  kept  an  office  for  advertisers,  counselling, 
designing,  acting  as  middleman  with  printers  and  bill- 
stickers,  for  the  inexperienced  or  the  uninspired:   the 


126  THE   WRECKER. 

dull  haberdaslier  came  to  him  for  ideas,  the  smart  theat- 
rical agent  for  his  local  knowledge ;  and  one  and  all 
departed  with  a  copy  of  his  pamphlet :  How,  Wlien^  and 
Wliere;  or,  the  Advertisei-' s  Vade-Mecum.  He  had  a 
tug  chartered  every  Saturday  afternoon  and  night,  car- 
ried people  outside  the  Heads,  and  provided  them  with 
lines  and  bait  for  six  hours'  fishing,  at  the  rate  of  five 
dollars  a  person.  I  am  told  that  some  of  them  (doubt- 
less adroit  anglers)  made  a  profit  on  the  transaction. 
Occasionally  he  bought  wrecks  and  condemned  vessels; 
these  latter  (I  cannot  tell  you  how)  found  their  way  to 
sea  again  under  aliases,  and  continued  to  stem  the  waves 
triumphantly  enough  under  the  colours  of  Bolivia  or 
Nicaragua.  Lastly,  there  was  a  certain  agricultural 
engine,  glorying  in  a  great  deal  of  vermilion  and  blue 
paint,  and  filling  (it  appeared)  a  i' long-felt  want,"  in 
which  his  interest  was  something  like  a  tenth. 

This  for  the  face  or  front  of  his  concerns.  "  On  the 
outside,"  as  he  phrased  it,  he  was  variously  and  myste- 
riously engaged.  No  dollar  slept  in  liis  possession; 
rather  he  kept  all  simultaneously  flying  like  a  conjurer 
with  oranges.  My  own  earnings,  when  I  began  to  have 
a  share,  he  woidd  but  show  me  for  a  moment,  and  dis- 
perse again,  like  those  illusive  money  gifts  which  are 
flashed  in  the  eyes  of  childhood  only  to  be  entombed  in 
the  missionary  box.  And  he  would  come  down  radiant 
from  a  weekly  balance-sheet,  clap  me  on  the   shoulder, 


IRONS    IN    THE    FIRE.  127 

declare  himself  a  winner  by  Gargantuan  figures,  and 
prove  destitute  of  a  quarter  for  a  drink. 

"  What  on  earth  have  you  done  with  it  ?  "  I  would  ask. 

"  Into  the  mill  again ;  all  re-invested ! "  he  would  cry, 
with  infinite  delight.  Investment  was  ever  his  word. 
He  could  not  bear  what  he  called  gambling.  "Never 
touch  stocks,  Loudon,"  he  would  say;  "nothing  but 
legitimate  business."  And  yet,  Heaven  knows,  many  an 
indurated  gambler  might  have  drawn  back  appalled  at 
the  first  hint  of  some  of  Pinkerton's  investments  !  One, 
which  I  succeeded  in  tracking  home,  and  instance  for  a 
specimen,  was  a  seventh  share  in  the  charter  of  a  certain 
ill-starred  schooner  bound  for  IMexico,  to  smuggle  weap- 
ons on  the  one  trip,  and  cigars  upon  the  other.  The 
latter  end  of  this  enterprise,  involving  (as  it  did)  ship- 
wreck, confiscation,  and  a  lawsuit  with  the  underwriters, 
was  too  painful  to  be  dwelt  upon  at  length.  "  It's  proved 
a  disappointment,"  was  as  far  as  my  friend  would  go 
with  me  in  words ;  but  I  knew,  from  observation,  that 
the  fabric  of  his  fortunes  tottered.  For  the  rest,  it  was 
only  by  accident  I  got  wind  of  the  transaction;  for 
Pinkerton,  after  a  time,  was  shy  of  introducing  me  to 
his  arcana:  the  reason  you  are  to  hear  presently. 

The  office  which  was  (or  should  have  been)  the  point 
of  rest  for  so  many  evolving  dollars  stood  in  the  heart 
of  the  city :  a  high  and  spacious  room,  with  many  plate- 
glass  windows.  A  glazed  cabinet  of  polished  redwood 
offered   to   the   eye   a   regiment   of   some   two  hundred 


128  THE   WRECKER. 

bottles,  conspicuously  labelled.  These  were  all  charged 
with  Pinkerton's  Thirteen  Star,  although  from,  across  the 
room  it  would  have  required  an  expert  to  distinguish 
them  from  the  same  number  of  bottles  of  Courvoisier.  I 
used  to  twit  my  friend  with  this  resemblance,  and  pro- 
pose a  new  edition  of  the  pamphlet,  with  the  title  thus 
improved  :  ^VJ>y  Drink  French  Brandy,  when  we  give  you 
the  same  labels  ?  The  doors  of  the  cabinet  revolved  all 
day  upon  their  hinges ;  and  if  there  entered  any  one  who 
was  a  stranger  to  the  merits  of  the  brand,  he  departed 
laden  with  a  bottle.  When  I  used  to  protest  at  this 
extravagance,  "  My  dear  Loudon,"  Pinkerton  would  cry, 
"  you  don't  seem  to  catch  on  to  business  principles ! 
The  prime  cost  of  the  spirit  is  literally  nothing.  I 
couldn't  find  a  cheaper  advertisement  if  I  tried." 
Against  the  side  post  of  the  cabinet  there  leaned  a 
gaudy  umbrella,  preserved  there  as  a  relic.  It  appears 
that  when  Pinkerton  was  about  to  place  Thirteen  Star 
upon  the  market,  the  rainy  season  was  at  hand.  He  lay 
dark,  almost  in  penury,  awaiting  the  first  shower,  at 
which,  as  upon  a  signal,  the  main  thoroughfares  became 
dotted  with  his  agents,  vendors  of  advertisements ;  and 
the  whole  world  of  San  Francisco,  from  the  business 
man  fleeing  for  the  ferry-boat,  to  the  lady  waiting  at 
the  corner  for  her  car,  sheltered  itself  under  umbrellas 
with  this  strange  device :  Are  you  ivet  ?  Try  Tliirteen 
Star.  "  It  was  a  mammoth  boom,"  said  Pinkerton,  with 
a  sigh  of  delighted  recollection.     "  There  wasn't  anothei 


lEONS   IN   THE   FIRE.  129 

Timbrella  to  be  seen.  I  stood  at  this  -window,  Loudon, 
feasting  my  eyes ;  and  I  declare,  I  felt  like  Vanderbilt." 
And  it  was  to  this  neat  application  of  the  local  climate 
that  he  owed,  not  only  much  of  the  sale  of  Thirteen  Star, 
but  the  whole  business  of  his  advertising  agency. 

The  large  desk  (to  resume  our  survey  of  the  office) 
stood  about  the  middle,  knee-deep  in  stacks  of  handbills 
and  posters,  of  Why  Drink  French  Brandy  f  and  The 
Advertiser's  Vade-Mecum.  It  was  flanked  upon  the  one 
hand  by  two  female  type- writers,  who  rested  not  between 
the  hours  of  nine  and  four,  and  upon  the  other  by  a 
model  of  the  agricultural  machine.  The  walls,  where 
they  were  not  broken  by  telephone  boxes  and  a  couple 
of  photographs  —  one  representing  the  wreck  of  the 
James  L.  Moody  on  a  bold  and  broken  coast,  the  other 
the  Saturday  tug  alive  with  amateur  fishers  —  almost 
disappeared  under  oil-paintings  gaudily  framed.  Many 
of  these  were  relics  of  the  Latin  Quarter,  and  I  must  do 
Pinkerton  the  justice  to  say  that  none  of  them  were  bad, 
and  some  had  remarkable  merit.  They  went  off  slowly 
but  for  handsome  figures;  and  their  places  were  pro- 
gressively supplied  with  the  work  of  local  artists. 
These  last  it  was  one  of  my  first  duties  to  review  and 
criticise.  Some  of  them  were  villainous,  yet  all  were 
saleable.  I  said  so ;  and  the  next  moment  saw  myself, 
the  figure  of  a  miserable  renegade,  bearing  arms  in  the 
wrong  camp.  I  was  to  look  at  pictures  thenceforward, 
not  with  the  eye  of  the  artist,  but  the  dealer ;  and  I  saw 
the  stream  widen  that  divided  me  from  all  I  loved. 


130  TPIE   WRECKER. 

"Now,  Loudon,"  Pinkerton  had  said,  tlie  morning 
after  the  lecture,  "  now  Loudon,  we  can  go  at  it  shoulder 
to  shoulder.  This  is  Avhat  I  have  longed  for :  I  wanted 
two  heads  and  four  arms ;  and  now  I  have  'em.  You'll 
find  it's  just  the  same  as  art — all  observation  and  imagi- 
nation ;  only  more  movement.  Just  wait  till  you  begin 
to  feel  the  charm!" 

I  might  have  waited  long.  Perhaps  I  lack  a  sense ; 
for  our  whole  existence  seemed  to  me  one  dreary  bustle, 
and  the  place  we  bustled  in  fitly  to  be  called  the  Place 
of  Yawning.  I  slept  in  a  little  den  behind  the  ofiice; 
Pinkerton,  in  the  office  itself,  stretched  on- a  patent  sofa 
which  sometimes  collapsed,  his  slumbers  still  further 
menaced  by  an  imminent  clock  with  an  alarm.  Poused 
by  this  diabolical  contrivance,  we  rose  early,  went  forth 
early  to  breakfast,  and  returned  by  nine  to  what  Pinker- 
ton called  work,  and  I  distraction.  Masses  of  letters 
must  be  opened,  read,  and  answered;  some  by  me  at  a 
subsidiary  desk  which  had  been  introduced  on  the  morn- 
ing of  my  arrival ;  others  by  my  bright-eyed  friend, 
pacing  the  room  like  a  caged  lion  as  he  dictated  to  the 
tinkling  type-writers,  Masses  of  wet  proof  had  to  be 
overhauled  and  scrawled  upon  with  a  blue  pencil  — 
"rustic"  —  "six-inch  caps"  —  "bold  spacing  here"  —  or 
sometimes  terms  more  fervid,  as  for  instance  this,  which 
I  remember  Pinkerton  to  have  spirted  on  the  margin  of 
an  advertisement  of  Soothing  Syrup :  "  Throw  this  all 
down.     Have  you  never  printed  an  advertisement  ?     I'll 


IRONS   IN  THE   FIRE.  131 

be  round  in  half  an  hour."  The  ledger  and  sale-book, 
besides,  we  had  always  with  us.  Such  was  the  backbone 
of  our  occupation,  and  tolerable  enough;  but  the  far 
greater  proportion  of  our  time  was  consumed  by  visitors, 
whole-souled,  grand  fellows  no  doubt,  and  as  sharp  as  a 
needle,  but  to  me  unfortunately  not  diverting.  Some 
were  apparently  half-witted,  and  must  be  talked  over  by 
the  hour  before  they  could  reach  the  humblest  decision, 
which  they  only  left  the  office  to  return  again  (ten 
minutes  later)  and  rescind.  Others  came  with  a  vast 
show  of  hurry  and  despatch,  but  I  observed  it  to  be 
principally  show.  The  agricultural  model  for  instance, 
which  was  practicable,  proved  a  kind  of  flypaper  for 
these  busybodies.  I  have  seen  them  blankly  turn  the 
crank  of  it  for  five  minutes  at  a  time,  simulating  (to 
nobody's  deception)  business  interest:  "Good  thing  this, 
Pinkerton  ?  Sell  much  of  it  ?  Ha  !  Couldn't  use  it,  I 
suppose,  as  a  medium  of  advertisement  for  my  article  ?  " 
—  which  was  perhaps  toilet  soap.  Others  (a  still  worse 
eariety)  carried  us  to  neighbouring  saloons  to  dice  for 
cocktails  and  (after  the  cocktails  were  paid)  for  dollars 
on  a  corner  of  the  counter.  The  attraction  of  dice  for 
all  these  people  was  indeed  extraordinary :  at  a  certain 
club,  where  I  once  dined  in  the  character  of  "my 
partner,  Mr.  Dodd,"  the  dice-box  came  on  the  table  with 
the  wine,  an  artless  substitute  for  after-dinner  wit. 

Of  all  our  visitors,  I  believe  T  preferred  Emperor  Nor- 
ton;  the  very  mention  of  whose  name  reminds  me  I 


132  THE   WRECKER. 

am  doing  scanty  justice  to  the  folks  of  San  Francisco. 
In  what  other  city  would  a  harmless  madman  who  sup- 
posed himself  emperor  of  the  two  Americas  have  been 
so  fostered  and  encouraged?  Where  else  would  even 
the  people  of  the  streets  have  respected  the  poor  soul's 
illusion?  Where  else  would  bankers  and  merchants 
have  received  his  visits,  cashed  his  cheques,  and  sub- 
mitted to  his  small  assessments  ?  "Wliere  else  would  he 
have  been  suffered  to  attend  and  address  the  exhibition 
days  of  schools  and  colleges  ?  where  else,  in  God's  green 
earth,  have  taken  his  pick  of  restaurants,  ransacked  the 
bill  of  fare,  and  departed  scathless?  They  tell  me  he 
was  even  an  exacting  patron,  threatening  to  witlidraw 
his  custom  when  dissatisfied;  and  I  can  believe  it,  for 
his  face  wore  an  expression  distinctly  gastronomical. 
Pinkerton  had  received  from  this  monarch  a  cabinet 
appointment ;  I  have  seen  the  brevet,  wondering  mainly 
at  the  good  nature  of  the  printer  who  had  executed  the 
forms,  and  I  think  my  friend  was  at  the  head  either 
of  foreign  affairs  or  education :  it  mattered,  indeed, 
nothing,  the  prestation  being  in  all  offices  identical.  It 
was  at  a  comparatively  early  date  that  I  saw  Jim  in 
the  exercise  of  his  public  functions.  His  Majesty  en- 
tered the  office  —  a  portly,  rather  flabby  man,  with  the 
face  of  a  gentleman,  rendered  unspeakably  pathetic  and 
absurd  by  the  great  sabre  at  his  side  and  the  peacock's 
feather  in  his  hat. 

"I  have   called   to  remind  you,  Mr.  Pinkerton,  that 


IRONS    IN   THE   FHiE.  133 

you  are  somewhat  in  arrear  of  taxes,"  lie  said,  with 
old-fashioned,  stately  courtesy. 

"Well,  Your  .Majesty,  what  is  the  amount?"  asked 
Jim ;  and  when  the  figure  was  named  (it  was  generally 
two  or  three  dollars),  paid  upon  the  nail  and  offered  a 
bonus  in  the  shape  of  Thirteen  Star. 

"I  am  always  delighted  to  patronise  native  indus- 
tries," said  Norton  the  First.  "  San  Erancisco  is  public- 
spirited  in  what  concerns  its  Emperor ;  and  indeed,  sir, 
of  all  my  domains,  it  is  my  favourite  city." 

"Come,"  said  I,  when  he  was  gone,  "I  prefer  that 
customer  to  the  lot." 

"It's  really  rather  a  distinction,"  Jim  admitted.  "I 
think  it  must  have  been  the  umbrella  racket  that  at- 
tracted him." 

We  were  distinguished  under  the  rose  by  the  notice 
of  other  and  greater  men.  There  were  days  when  Jim 
wore  an  air  of  unusual  capacity  and  resolve,  spoke  with 
more  brevity  like  one  pressed  for  time,  and  took  often 
on  his  tongue  such  phrases  as  "Longhurst  told  me  so 
this  morning,"  or  "I  had  it  straight  from  Longhurst 
himself."  It  was  no  wonder,  I  used  to  think,  that  Pink- 
erton  was  called  to  council  with  such  Titans;  for  the 
creature's  quickness  and  resource  were  beyond  praise. 
In  the  early  days  when  he  consulted  me  without  reserve, 
pacing  the  room,  projecting,  ciphering,  extending  hy- 
pothetical interests,  trebling  imaginary  capital,  his  "en- 
gine" (to  renew  an  excellent  old  word)  labouring  full 


134     •  THE   WRECKER. 

steam  ahead,  I  could  never  decide  whether  my  sense  of 
respect  or  entertainment  were  the  stronger.  But  these 
good  hours  were  destined  to  curtailment. 

"Yes,  it's  smart  enough,"  I  once  observed.  "But, 
Pinkerton,  do  you  think  it's  honest  ?  " 

"  You  don't  think  it's  honest !  "  he  wailed,  "  0  dear 
me,  that  ever  I  should  have  heard  such  an  expression  on 
your  lips ! " 

At  sight  of  his  distress,  I  plagiarised  unblushingly 
from  Myner.  "You  seem  to  think  honesty  as  simple 
as  Blind  Man's  Buff,"  said  I.  "It's  a  more  delicate 
affair  than  that :    delicate  as  any  art." 

"  0  well !  at  that  rate  ! "  he  exclaimed,  with  complete 
relief.     "That's  casuistry." 

"  I  am  perfectly  certain  of  one  thing :  that  what  you 
propose  is  dishonest,"  I  returned. 

"Well,  say  no  more  about  it.  That's  settled,"  he 
replied. 

Thus,  almost  at  a  word,  my  point  was  carried.  But 
the  trouble  was  that  such  differences  continued  to  recur, 
until  we  began  to  regard  each  other  with  alarm.  If  there 
were  one  thing  Pinkerton  valued  himself  upon,  it  was  his 
honesty ;  if  there  were  one  thing  he  clung  to,  it  was  my 
good  opinion ;  and  when  both  were  involved,  as  was  the 
case  in  these  commercial  cruces,  the  man  was  on  the 
rack.  My  own  position,  if  you  consider  how  much  I 
owed  him,  how  hateful  is  the  trade  of  fault-finder,  and 
that  yet  I  lived  and  fattened  on  these  questionable  oper- 


lEONS   IN   THE   FIEE.  135 

atioDS,  was  perhaps  equally  distressing.  If  I  had  been 
more  sterling  or  more  combative  things  might  have  gone 
extremely  far.  But,  in  truth,  I  was  just  base  enough  to 
profit  by  what  was  not  forced  on  my  attention,  rather 
than  seek  scenes :  Pinkerton  quite  cunning  enough  to 
avail  himself  of  my  weakness;  and  it  was  a  relief  to 
both  when  he  began  to  involve  his  proceedings  in  a 
decent  mystery. 

Our  last  dispute,  which  had  a  most  unlooked-for  con- 
sequence, turned  on  the  refitting  of  condemned  ships. 
He  had  bought  a  miserable  hulk,  and  came,  rubbing  his 
hands,  to  inform  me  she  was  already  on  the  slip,  under 
a  new  name,  to  be  repaired.  When  first  I  had  heard  of 
this  industry  I  suppose  I  scarcely  comprehended;  but 
much  discussion  had  sharpened  my  faculties,  and  now 
my  brow  became  heavy. 

"  I  can  be  no  party  to  that,  Pinkerton,"  said  I. 

He  leaped  like  a  man  shot.  "  What  next  ?  "  he  cried. 
"  What  ails  you,  anyway  ?  You  seem  to  me  to  dislike 
everything  that's  profitable." 

"This  ship  has  been  condemned  by  Lloj^d's  agent," 
said  I. 

"But  I  tell  you  it's  a  deal.  The  ship's  in  splendid 
condition;  there's  next  to  nothing  wrong  with  her  but 
the  garboard  streak  and  the  sternpost.  I  tell  j-ou 
Lloyd's  is  a  ring  like  everybody  else ;  only  it's  an  English 
ring,  and  that's  what  deceives  you.  If  it  was  American, 
you  would  be  crying  it  down  all  day.     It's  Anglomania, 


136  THE   WRECKER. 

common  Anglomania,"  he  cried,  with  growing  irrita- 
tion. 

"  I  will  not  make  money  by  risking  men's  lives,"  was 
my  ultimatum. 

"  Great  Caesar !  isn't  all  speculation  a  risk  ?  Isn't 
the  fairest  kind  of  shipowning  to  risk  men's  lives  ? 
And  mining  —  how's  that  for  risk  ?  And  look  at  the 
elevator  business  —  there's  danger,  if  you  like  !  Didn't 
I  take  my  risk  when  I  bought  her  ?  She  might  have 
been  too  far  gone ;  and  where  would  I  have  been  ? 
Loudon,"  he  cried,  "  I  tell  you  the  truth :  you're  too  full 
of  refinement  for  this  world!" 

"I  condemn  you  out  of  your  own  lips,"  I  replied. 
" '  The  fairest  kind  of  shipowning,'  says  you.  If  you 
please,  let  us  only  do  the  fairest  kind  of  business." 

The  shot  told,  the  Irrepressible  was  silenced;  and  I 
profited  by  the  chance,  to  pour  in  a  broadside  of  another 
sort.  He  was  all  sunk  in  money-getting,  I  pointed  out ; 
he  never  dreamed  of  anything  but  dollars.  Where  were 
all  his  generous,  progressive  sentiments  ?  Where  was  his 
culture  ?  I  asked.    And  where  was  the  American  Type  ? 

"It's  true,  Loudon,"  he  cried,  striding  up  and  down 
the  room,  and  wildly  scouring  at  his  hair.  "You're 
perfectly  right.  I'm  becoming  materialised.  0,  what 
a  thing  to  have  to  say,  what  a  confession  to  make ! 
Materialised !  Me !  Loudon,  this  must  go  on  no  longer. 
You've  been  a  loyal  friend  to  me  once  more ;  give 
me  your  hand! — you've  saved  me  again.     I  must   do 


IRONS   IN  THE  FIRE.  137 

something  to  rouse  the  spiritual  side :  something  desper- 
ate ;  study  something,  something  dry  and  tough.  What 
shall  it  be?    Theology?    Algebra?     What's  Algebra?" 

"  It's  dry  and  tough  enough,"  said  I ;  "  a^  +  2a&  +  Jr.''' 

"  It's  stimulating,  though  ?  "  he  inquired. 

I  told  him  I  believed  so,  and  that  it  was  considered 
fortifying  to  Types. 

"Then,  that's  the  thing  for  me.  I'll  study  Algebra," 
he  concluded. 

The  next  day,  by  application  to  one  of  his  type-writing 
women,  he  got  word  of  a  young  lady,  one  Miss  Mamie 
McBride,  who  was  willing  and  able  to  conduct  him  in 
these  bloomless  meadows ;  and,  her  circumstances  being 
lean,  and  terms  consequently  moderate,  he  and  Mamie 
were  soon  in  agreement  for  two  lessons  in  the  week. 
He  took  fire  with  unexampled  rapidity ;  he  seemed 
unable  to  tear  himself  away  from  the  symbolic  art; 
an  hour's  lesson  occupied  the  whole  evening;  and  the 
original  two  was  soon  increased  to  four,  and  then  to 
five.  I  bade  him  beware  of  female  blandishments.  "  The 
first  thing  you  know,  you'll  be  falling  in  love  with  the 
algebraist,"  said  I. 

"  Don't  say  it  even  in  jest,"  he  cried.  "  She's  a  lady  I 
revere.  I  could  no  more  lay  a  hand  upon  her  than 
I  could  upon  a  spirit.  Loudon,  I  don't  believe  God  ever 
made  a  purer-minded  woman." 

Which  appeared  to  me  too  fervent  to  be  reassuring. 

Meanwhile  I  had  been  long  expostulating  with   my 


138  THE  WRECKER. 

friend  upon  a  different  matter.  "  I'm  the  fifth  wheel," 
I  kept  telling  him.  "  For  any  use  I  am,  I  might  as  well 
be  in  Senegambia.  The  letters  you  give  me  to  attend  to 
might  be  answered  by  a  sucking  child.  And  I  tell  you 
what  it  is,  Pinkerton :  either  you've  got  to  find  me  some 
employment,  or  I'll  have  to  start  in  and  find  it  for 
myself." 

This  I  said  with  a  corner  of  my  eye  in  the  usual  quar- 
ter, toward  the  arts,  little  dreaming  what  destiny  was  to 
provide. 

"I've  got  it,  Loudon,"  Pinkerton  at  last  replied. 
"  Got  the  idea  on  the  Potrero  cars.  Pound  I  hadn't  a 
pencil,  borrowed  one  from  the  conductor,  and  figured 
on  it  roughly  all  the  way  in  town.  I  saw  it  was  the 
thing  at  last ;  gives  yoii  a  real  show.  All  your  talents 
and  accomplishments  come  in.  Here's  a  sketch  adver- 
tisement. Just  run  your  eye  over  it.  ^  Sun,  Ozone, 
ancl3[usic!  PINKERTON'S  HEBDOMAD AEY  PIC- 
NICS ! '  (That's  a  good,  catching  phrase,  '  hebdomadary,' 
though  it's  hard  to  say.  I  made  a  note  of  it  when  I 
was  looking  in  the  dictionary  how  to  spell  hectagonal. 
'■  Well,  you're  a  boss  word,'  I  said.  '  Before  you're  very 
much  older,  I'll  have  you  in  type  as  long  as  yourself.' 
And  here  it  is,  you  see.)  ^Five  dollars  a  head,  and  ladies 
free.  Monster  Olio  of  Attkactions.'  (How  does  that 
strike  you?)  'Free  luncheon  under  the  greemvood  tree. 
Dance  on  the  elastic  sward.  Home  again  in  the  Bright 
Evening  Hours.  Manager  and  Honorary  Steward,  H. 
Loudon  Dodd,  Esq.,  the  well-known  connoisseur.'" 


IKONS   IN   THE   FIRE.  139 

Singular  how  a  man  runs  from  Scylla  to  Charybdis ! 
I  was  so  intent  on  securing  the  disappearance  of  a  single 
epithet  that  I  accepted  the  rest  of  the  advertisement 
and  all  that  it  involved  without  discussion.  So  it  befell 
that  the  words  "  well-known  connoisseur  "  were  deleted ; 
but  that  H.  Loudon  Dodd  became  manager  and  honorary 
steward  of  Pinkerton's  Hebdomadary  Picnics,  soon  short- 
ened, by  popular  consent,  to  the  Dromedary. 

By  eight  o'clock,  any  Sunday  morning,  I  was  to  be 
observed  by  an  admiring  public  on  the  wharf.  The  garb 
and  attributes  of  sacrifice  consisted  of  a  black  frock  coat, 
resetted,  its  pockets  bulging  with  sweetmeats  and  in- 
ferior cigars,  trousers  of  light  blue,  a  silk  hat  like  a 
reflector,  and  a  varnished  wand.  A  goodly  steamer 
guarded  my  one  flank,  panting  and  throbbing,  flags  flut- 
tering fore  and  aft  of  her,  illustrative  of  the  Dromedary 
and  patriotism.  My  other  flank  was  covered  by  the 
ticket-office,  strongly  held  by  a  trusty  character  of  the 
Scots  persuasion,  rosetted  like  his  superior  and  smoking 
a  cigar  to  mark  the  occasion  festive.  At  half-past,  having 
assured  myself  that  all  was  well  with  the  free  luncheons, 
I  lit  a  cigar  myself,  and  awaited  the  strains  of  the 
"Pioneer  Band."  I  had  never  to  wait  long  —  they  were 
German  and  punctual  —  and  by  a  few  minutes  after  the 
half-hour,  I  would  hear  them  booming  down  street  with 
a  long  military  roll  of  drums,  some  score  of  gratuitous 
asses  prancing  at  the  head  in  bearskin  hats  and  buckskin 
aprons,  and  conspicuous   with  resplendent  axes.      The 


140  THE   WEECKER. 

band,  of  course,  we  paid  for;  but  so  strong  is  the  San 
Franciscan  passion  for  public  masquerade,  that  the 
asses  (as  I  say)  were  all  gratuitous,  pranced  for  the 
love  of  it,  and  cost  us  nothing  but  their  luncheon. 

The  musicians  formed  up  in  the  bows  of  my  steamer, 
and  struck  into  a  skittish  polka;  the  asses  mounted 
guard  upon  the  gangway  and  the  ticket-office ;  and  pres- 
ently after,  in  family  parties  of  father,  mother,  and  chil- 
dren, in  the  form  of  duplicate  lovers  or  in  that  of  solitary 
youth,  the  public  began  to  descend  upon  us  by  the  earful 
at  a  time ;  four  to  six  hundred  perhaps,  with  a  strong 
German  flavour,  and  all  merry  as  children.  When  these 
had  been  shepherded  on  board,  and  the  inevitable  belated 
two  or  three  had  gained  the  deck  amidst  the  cheering  of 
the  public,  the  hawser  was  cast  off,  and  we  plunged  into 
the  bay. 

And  now  behold  the  honorary  steward  in  the  hour  of 
duty  and  glory  :  see  me  circulate  amid  the  crowd,  radi- 
ating affability  and  laughter,  liberal  with  my  sweetmeats 
and  cigars.  I  say  unblushing  things  to  hobbledehoy  girls, 
tell  shy  young  persons  this  is  the  married  peoples'  boat, 
roguishly  ask  the  abstracted  if  they  are  thinking  of  their 
sweethearts,  offer  Paterfamilias  a  cigar,  am  struck  with 
the  beauty  and  grow  curious  about  the  age  of  mamma's 
youngest  who  (I  assure  her  gaily)  will  be  a  man  before 
his  mother;  or  perhaps  it  may  occur  to  me,  from  the 
sensible  expression  of  her  face,  that  she  is  a  person  of 
good  counsel,  and  I  ask  her  earnestly  if  she  knows  any 


IRONS   IN  THE   FIRE.  141 

particularly  pleasant  place  on  the  Saucelito  or  San 
Rafael  coast,  for  the  scene  of  our  i^icnic  is  always 
supposed  to  be  uncertain.  The  next  moment  I  am  back 
at  my  giddy  badinage  with  the  young  ladies,  wakening 
laughter  as  I  go,  and  leaving  in  my  wake  applausive 
comments  of  "  Isn't  Mr.  Dodd  a  funny  gentleman  ?  "  and 
"  0,  I  think  he's  just  too  nice  ! " 

An  hour  having  passed  in  this  airy  manner,  I  start 
upon  my  rounds  afresh,  with  a  bag  full  of  coloured 
tickets,  all  with  pins  attached,  and  all  with  legible  in- 
scriptions: *'01d  Germany,"  "California,"  "True  Love," 
"  Old  Fogies,"  "  La  Belle  France,"  "  Green  Erin,"  "  The 
Land  of  Cakes,"  "Washington,"  "Blue  Jay,"  "Robin 
Red-Breast," — twenty  of  each  denomination;  for  when 
it  comes  to  the  luncheon,  we  sit  down  by  twenties. 
These  are  distributed  with  anxious  tact  —  for  indeed  this 
is  the  most  delicate  part  of  my  functions  —  but  outwardly 
with  reckless  unconcern,  amidst  the  gayest  flutter  and 
confusion ;  and  are  immediately  after  sported  upon  hats 
and  bonnets,  to  the  extreme  diffusion  of  cordiality,  total 
strangers  hailing  each  other  by  "the  number  of  their 
mess "  —  so  we  humourously  name  it  —  and  the  deck 
ringing  with  cries  of,  "Here,  all  Blue  Jays  to  the 
rescue ! "  or,  "'  I  say,  am  I  alone  in  this  blame'  ship  ? 
Ain't  there  no  more  Californians  ?  " 

By  this  time  we  are  drawing  near  to  the  appointed 
spot.  I  mount  upon  the  bridge,  the  observed  of  all 
observers. 


142  THE   WRECKER. 

"Captain/'  I  say,  in  clear,  emphatic  tones,  heard  far 
and  wide,  "the  majority  of  the  company  appear  to  be 
in  favour  of  the  little  cove  beyond  One  Tree  Point." 

"  All  right,  Mr.  Dodd,"  responds  the  captain,  heartily ; 
"  all  one  to  me.  I  am  not  exactly  sure  of  the  place  you 
mean ;  but  just  you  stay  here  and  pilot  me." 

I  do,  pointing  with  my  wand.  I  do  pilot  him,  to  the 
inexpressible  entertainment  of  the  picnic;  for  I  am 
(why  should  I  deny  it  ?)  the  popular  man.  We  slow 
down  off  the  mouth  of  a  grassy  valley,  watered  by  a 
brook,  and  set  in  pines  and  redwoods.  The  anchor  is 
let  go;  the  boats  are  lowered,  two  of  them  already 
packed  with  the  materials  of  an  impromptu  bar;  and 
the  Pioneer  Band,  accompanied  by  the  resplendent  asses, 
fill  the  other,  and  move  shoreward  to  the  inviting  strains 
of  Buffalo  Gals,  won't  you  come  out  to-night  ?  It  is  a 
part  of  our  programme  that  one  of  the  asses  shall,  from 
sheer  clumsiness,  in  the  course  of  this  embarkation, 
drop  a  dummy  axe  into  the  water  :  whereupon  the  mirth 
of  the  picnic  can  hardly  be  assuaged.  Upon  one  occa- 
sion, the  dummy  axe  floated,  and  the  laugh  turned  rather 
the  wrong  way. 

In  from  ten  to  twenty  mijiutes  the  boats  are  along- 
side again,  the  messes  are  marshalled  separately  on  the 
deck,  and  the  picnic  goes  ashore,  to  find  the  band  and  the 
impromptu  bar  awaiting  them.  Then  come  the  hampers, 
which  are  piled  upon  the  beach,  and  surrounded  by  a 
stern  guard  of  stalwart  asses,  axe  on  shoulder.    It  is  here 


lEONS  IN  THE   FIEE.  143 

I  take  my  place,  note-book  in  hand,  under  a  banner  bear- 
ing the  legend,  "  Come  here  for  hampers."  Each  hamper 
contains  a  complete  outfit  for  a  separate  twenty,  cold 
provender,  plates,  glasses,  knives,  forks,  and  spoons  :  an 
agonized  printed  appeal  from  the  fevered  pen  of  Pinker- 
ton,  pasted  on  the  inside  of  the  lid,  beseeches  that  care 
be  taken  of  the  glass  and  silver.  Beer,  wine,  and  lemon- 
ade are  flowing  already  from  the  bar,  and  the  various 
clans  of  twenty  file  away  into  the  woods,  with  bottles 
under  their  arms,  and  the  hampers  strung  upon  a  stick. 
Till  one  they  feast  there,  in  a  very  moderate  seclusion, 
all  being  within  earshot  of  the  band.  From  one  till 
four,  dancing  takes  place  upon  the  grass  ;  the  bar  does  a 
roaring  business,  and  the  honorary  steward,  who  has 
already  exhausted  himself  to  bring  life  into  the  dullest 
of  the  messes,  must  now  indefatigably  dance  with  the 
plainest  of  the  women.  At  four  a  bugle-call  is  sounded  ; 
and  by  half -past  behold  us  on  board  again,  pioneers,  cor- 
rugated iron  bar,  empty  bottles,  and  all ;  while  the  hon- 
orary steward,  free  at  last,  subsides  into  the  captain's 
cabin  over  a  brandy  and  soda  and  a  book.  Free  at  last, 
I  say,  yet  there  remains  before  him  the  frantic  leave- 
takings  at  the  pier,  and  a  sober  journey  up  to  Pinkerton's 
office  with  two  policemen  and  the  day's  takings  in  a  bag. 
What  I  have  here  sketched  was  the  routine.  But  we 
appealed  to  the  taste  of  San  Francisco  more  distinctly  in 
particular  fetes.  "  Ye  Olde  Time  Pycke-Nycke,"  largely 
advertised  in  hand-bills  beginning  "  Oyez,  Oycz ! "  and 


144  THE   WRECKER. 

largely  frequented  by  knights,  monks,  and  cavaliers,  was 
drowned  out  by  unseasonable  rain,  and  returned  to  the 
city  one  of  the  saddest  spectacles  I  ever  remember  to 
have  witnessed.  In  pleasing  contrast,  and  certainly  our 
chief  success,  was  "The  Gathering  of  the  Clans,"  or 
Scottish  picnic.  So  many  milk-white  knees  were  never 
before  simultaneously  exhibited  in  public,  and  to  judge 
by  the  prevalence  of  "  Royal  Stewart "  and  the  number 
of  eagle's  feathers,  we  were  a  high-born  company.  I 
threw  forward  the  Scottish  flank  of  my  own  ancestry, 
and  passed  muster  as  a  clansman  with  applause.  There 
was,  indeed,  but  one  small  cloud  on  this  red-letter  day. 
I  had  laid  in  a  large  supply  of  the  national  beverage,  in 
the  shape  of  The  "Hob  Roy  MacGregor  0"  Blend,  War- 
ranted Old  and  Vatted;  and  this  must  certainly  have 
been  a  generous  spirit,  for  I  had  some  anxious  work  be- 
tween four  and  half-past,  conveying  on  board  the  inani- 
mate forms  of  chieftains. 

To  one  of  our  ordinary  festivities,  where  he  was 
the  life  and  soul  of  his  own  mess,  Pinkerton  himself 
came  incognito,  bringing  the  algebraist  on  his  arm. 
Miss  Mamie  proved  to  be  a  well-enough-looking  mouse, 
with  a  large,  limpid  eye,  very  good  manners,  and  a  flow 
of  the  most  correct  expressions  I  have  ever  heard  upon 
the  human  lip.  As  Pinkerton's  incognito  was  strict,  I 
had  little  opportunity  to  cultivate  the  lady's  acquain- 
tance ;  but  I  was  informed  afterwards  that  she  consid- 
ered  me   "the  wittiest  gentleman  she  had  ever  met." 


IRONS   IN   THE   FIRE.  145 

"  The  Lord  mend  your  taste  in  wit ! "  thought  I ;  but 
I  cannot  conceal  that  such  was  the  general  impression. 
One  of  my  pleasantries  even  went  the  round  of  San 
Francisco,  and  I  have  heard  it  (myself  all  unknown) 
bandied  in  saloons.  To  be  unknown  began  at  last  to 
be  a  rare  experience :  a  bustle  woke  upon  my  passage  -, 
above  all,  in  humble  neighbourhoods.  ""Who's  that?" 
one  would  ask,  and  the  other  would  cry,  ''  That !  Why, 
Dromedary  Dodd ! "  or  with  withering  scorn,  "  Not  know 
Mr.  Dodd  of  the  Picnics  ?  Well ! "  and  indeed  I  think 
it  marked  a  rather  barren  destiny  ;  for  our  picnics,  if 
a  trifle  vulgar,  were  as  gay  and  innocent  as  the  age  of 
gold;  I  am  sure  no  people  divert  themselves  so  easily 
and  so  well :  and  even  with  the  cares  of  my  stewardship, 
I  was  often  happy  to  be  there. 

Indeed,  there  were  but  two  drawbacks  in  the  least 
considerable.  The  first  was  my  terror  of  the  hobblede- 
hoy girls,  to  whom  (from  the  demands  of  my  situation) 
I  was  obliged  to  lay  myself  so  open.  The  other,  if  less 
momentous,  was  more  mortifying.  In  early  days,  at 
my  mother's  knee,  as  a  man  may  say,  I  had  acquired 
the  unenviable  accomplishment  (which  I  have  never 
since  been  able  to  lose)  of  singing  Just  before  the  Battle. 
I  have  what  the  French  call  a  fillet  of  voice,  my  best 
notes  scarce  audible  about  a  dinner-table,  and  the  upper 
register  rather  to  be  regarded  as  a  higher  power  of 
silence :  experts  tell  me  besides  that  I  sing  flat ;  nor, 
if  I  were  the  best  singer  in  the  world,  does  Just  before 


146  THE   WRECKER. 

the  Battle  occur  to  my  mature  taste  as  the  song  that  I 
would  choose  to  sing.  In  spite  of  all  which  considera- 
tions, at  one  picnic,  memorably  dull,  and  after  I  had 
exhausted  every  other  art  of  pleasing,  I  gave,  in  des- 
peration, my  one  song.  From  that  hour  my  doom  was 
gone  forth.  Either  we  had  a  chronic  passenger  (though 
I  could  never  detect  him),  or  the  very  wood  and  iron  of 
the  steamer  must  have  retained  the  tradition.  At  every 
successive  picnic  word  went  round  that  Mr,  Dodd  was 
a  singer ;  that  Mr.  Dodd  sang  Just  before  the  Battle,  and 
finally  that  now  was  the  time  when  Mr.  Dodd  sang  Just 
before  the  Battle;  so  that  the  thing  became  a  fixture 
like  the  dropping  of  the  dummy  axe,  and  you  are  to 
conceive  me,  Sunday  after  Sunday,  piping  up  my  lament- 
able ditty  and  covered,  when  it  was  done,  with  gratui- 
tous applause.  It  is  a  beautiful  trait  in  human  nature 
that  I  was  invariably  offered  an  encore. 

I  was  well  paid,  however,  even  to  sing.  Pinkerton  and 
I,  after  an  average  Sunday,  had  five  hundred  dollars  to 
divide.  Nay,  and  the  picnics  were  the  means,  although 
indirectly,  of  bringing  me  a  singular  windfall.  This  was 
at  the  end  of  the  season,  after  the  "  Grand  Farewell  Fancy 
Dress  Gala."  Many  of  the  hampers  had  suffered  severely ; 
and  it  was  judged  wiser  to  save  storage,  dispose  of  them, 
and  lay  in  a  fresh  stock  when  the  campaign  re-opened. 
Among  my  purchasers  was  a  workingman  of  the  name 
of  Speedy,  to  whose  house,  after  several  unavailing 
letters,  I  must  proceed  in  person,  wondering  to  find 


IRONS   IN  THE   FIEE.  147 

myself  once  again  on  the  wrong  side,  and  playing  cred- 
itor to  some  one  else's  debtor.  Speedy  was  in  the  bel- 
ligerent stage  of  fear.  He  could  not  pay.  It  appeared 
he  had  already  resold  the  hampers,  and  he  defied  me  to 
do  my  worst.  I  did  not  like  to  lose  my  own  money ;  I 
hated  to  lose  Pinkerton's ;  and  the  bearing  of  my  creditor 
incensed  me. 

"Do  you  know,  Mr.  Speedy,  that  I  can  send  you  to 
the  penitentiary  ?  "  said  I,  willing  to  read  him  a  lesson. 

The  dire  expression  was  overheard  in  the  next  room. 
A  large,  fresh,  motherly  Irishwoman  ran  forth  upon  the 
instant,  and  fell  to  besiege  me  with  caresses  and  appeals. 
"Sure  now,  and  ye  couldn't  have  the  heart  to  ut,  Mr. 
Dodd,  you,  that's  so  well  kno^n  to  be  a  pleasant  gentle- 
man ;  and  it's  a  pleasant  face  ye  have,  and  the  picture 
of  me  own  brother  that's  dead  and  gone.  It's  a  truth 
that  he's  been  drinking.  Ye  can  smell  it  off  of  him, 
more  blame  to  him.  But,  indade,  and  there's  nothing  in 
the  house  beyont  the  furnicher,  and  Thim  Stock.  It's 
the  stock  that  ye'll  be  taking,  dear.  A  sore  penny  it  has 
cost  me,  first  and  last,  and  by  all  tales,  not  worth  an 
owld  tobacco  pipe."  Thus  adjured,  and  somewhat  em- 
barrassed by  the  stern  attitude  I  had  adopted,  I  suffered 
myself  to  be  invested  with  a  considerable  quantity  of 
what  is  called  wild-cat  stock,  in  which  this  excellent 
if  illogical  female  had  been  squandering  her  hard-earned 
gold.  It  could  scarce  be  said  to  better  my  position,  but 
the  step  quieted  the  woman ;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  I 


148  THE   WRECKER. 

could  uot  think  I  was  taking  much  risk,  for  the  shares 
in  question  (they  were  those  of  what  I  will  call  the 
Catamount  Silver  Mine)  had  fallen  some  time  before  to 
the  bed-rock  quotation,  and  now  lay  perfectly  inert,  or 
were  only  kicked  (like  other  waste  waper)  about  the 
kennel  of  the  exchange  by  banki-upt  speculators. 

A  month  or  two  after,  I  perceived  by  the  stock-list 
that  Catamount  had  taken  a  bound;  before  afternoon, 
''thim  stock"  were  worth  a  quite  considerable  pot  of 
money ;  and  I  learned,  upon  inquiry,  that  a  bonanza 
had  been  found  in  a  condemned  lead,  and  the  mine  was 
now  expected  to  do  wonders.  Eemarkable  to  philoso- 
phers how  bonanzas  are  found  in  condemned  leads,  and 
how  the  stock  is  always  at  freezing-point  immediately 
before !  By  some  stroke  of  chance,  the  Speedys  had 
held  on  to  the  right  thing ;  they  had  escaped  the 
sj'ndicate ;  yet  a  little  more,  if  I  had  not  come  to 
dun  them,  and  Mrs.  Speedy  would  have  been  buying 
a  silk  dress.  I  could  not  bear,  of  course,  to  profit 
by  the  accident,  and  returned  to  offer  restitution.  The 
house  was  in  a  bustle;  the  neighbours  (all  stock-gam- 
blers themselves)  had  crowded  to  condole ;  and  Mrs. 
Speedy  sat  with  streaming  tears,  the  centre  of  a  sym- 
pathetic group.  "  For  fifteen  year,  I've  been  at  ut,"  she 
was  lamenting,  as  I  entered,  "and  grudging  the  babes 
the  very  milk,  more  shame  to  me !  to  pay  their  dhirty 
assessments.  And  now,  my  dears,  I  should  be  a  lady, 
and  driving  in  my  coach,  if  all  had  their  rights ;  and  a 


IRONS   IN   THE  FIRE.  149 

sorrow  on  that  man,  Dodd !  As  soon  as  I  set  eyes  on 
him,  I  seen  the  divil  was  in  the  house." 

It  was  upon  these  words  that  I  made  my  entrance, 
which  was  therefore  di'amatic  enough,  though  nothing  to 
what  followed.  For  when  it  appeared  that  I  was  come 
to  restore  the  lost  fortune,  and  when  Mrs.  Speedy  (after 
copiously  weeping  on  my  bosom)  had  refused  the  resti- 
tution, and  when  Mr.  Speedy  (summoned  to  that  end 
from  a  camp  of  the  Grand  Army  of  the  Republic)  had 
added  his  refusal,  and  when  I  had  insisted,  and  they  had 
insisted,  and  the  neighbours  had  applauded  and  sup- 
ported each  of  us  in  turn;  and  when  at  last  it  was 
agreed  we  were  to  hold  the  stock  together,  and  share 
the  proceeds  in  three  parts  —  one  for  me,  one  for  Mr. 
Speedy,  and  one  for  his  spouse  —  I  will  leave  you  to 
conceive  the  enthusiasm  that  reigned  in  that  small,  bare 
apartment,  with  the  sewing-machine  in  the  one  corner, 
and  the  babes  asleep  in  the  other,  and  pictures  of  Gar- 
field and  the  Battle  of  Gettysburg  on  the  yellow  walls. 
Port  wine  was  had  in  by  a  sympathiser,  and  we  drank  it 
mingled  with  tears. 

"And  I  dhrink  to  your  health,  my  dear,"  sobbed  Mrs. 
Speedy,  especially  affected  by  my  gallantry  in  the 
matter  of  the  third  share  ;  ''  and  I'm  sure  we  all  dhrink 
to  his  health  —  Mr.  Dodd  of  the  picnics,  no  gentleman 
better  known  than  him ;  and  it's  my  prayer,  dear,  the 
good  God  may  be  long  s^^ared  to  see  ye  in  health  and 
happiness!" 


150  THE   WRECKER. 

In  the  end  I  was  the  chief  gainer ;  for  I  sold  my 
third  while  it  was  worth  live  thousand  dollars,  but  the 
Speedys  more  adventurously  held  on  until  the  syndicate 
reversed  the  process,  when  they  were  happy  to  escape 
with  perhaps  a  quarter  of  that  sum.  It  was  just  as 
well;  for  the  bulk  of  the  money  was  (in  Pinkerton's 
phrase)  reinvested ;  and  when  next  I  saw  Mrs.  Speedy, 
she  was  still  gorgeously  dressed  from  the  proceeds  of 
the  late  success,  but  was  already  moist  with  tears  over 
the  new  catastrophe.  "  We're  froze  out,  me  darlin' ! 
All  the  money  we  had,  dear,  and  the  sewing-machine, 
and  Jim's  uniform,  was  in  the  Golden  West ;  and  the 
vipers  has  put  on  a  new  assessment." 

By  the  end  of  the  year,  therefore,  this  is  how  I 
stood.    I  had  made 

By  Catamount  Silver  Mine $5000 

By  the  picnics 3000 

By  the  lecture 600 

By  profit  and  loss  on  capital  in  Pinkerton's 

business 1350 

f9950 
to  which  must  be  added 
What  remained  of  my  grandfather's  donation  .  8500 

$18,450 
It  appears,  on  the  other  hand,  that 

I  had  spent 4000 

Which  thus  left  me  to  the  good $14,450 


IRONS   IN   THE  FIEE.  151 

A  result  on  which  I  am  not  ashamed  to  say  I  looked 
with  gratitude  and  pride.  Some  eight  thousand  (being 
late  conquest)  was  liquid  and  actually  tractile  in  the 
bank;  the  rest  whirled  beyond  reach  and  even  sight 
(save  in  the  mirror  of  a  balance-sheet)  under  the  com- 
pelling spell  of  wizard  Pinkerton.  Dollars  of  mine 
were  tacking  off  the  shores  of  Mexico,  in  peril  of  the 
deep  and  the  guarda-costas ;  they  rang  on  saloon-counters 
in  the  city  of  Tombstone,  Arizona;  they  shone  in  faro- 
tents  among  the  mountain  diggings :  the  imagination 
flagged  in  following  them,  so  wide  were  they  diffused, 
so  briskly  they  span  to  the  turning  of  the  wizard's 
crank.  But  here,  there,  or  everywhere  I  could  still 
tell  myself  it  was  all  mine,  and  what  was  more  con- 
vincing, draw  substantial  dividends.  My  fortune,  I 
called  it ;  and  it  represented,  when  expressed  in  dollars 
or  even  British  pounds,  an  honest  pot  of  money ;  when 
extended  into  francs,  a  veritable  fortune.  Perhaps  I 
have  let  the  cat  out  of  the  bag ;  perhaps  you  see  already 
where  my  hopes  were  pointing,  and  begin  to  blame  my 
inconsistency.  But  I  must  first  tell  you  my  excuse,  and 
the  change  that  had  befallen  Pinkerton. 

About  a  week  after  the  picnic  to  which  he  escorted 
Mamie,  Pinkerton  avowed  the  state  of  his  affections. 
From  what  I  had  observed  on  board  the  steamer,  where 
methought  Mamie  waited  on  him  with  her  limpid  eyes, 
I  encouraged  the  bashful  lover  to  proceed ;  and  the  very 
next  evening  he  was  carrying  me  to  call  on  his  affianced. 


152  THE   WRECKER. 

"You  must  befriend  her,  Loudon,  as  you  have  alwaj-s 
befriended  me,"  he  said,  pathetically. 

"  By  saying  disagreeable  things  ?  I  doubt  if  that  be 
the  way  to  a  young  lady's  favour,"  I  replied;  "and 
since  this  picnicking  I  begin  to  be  a  man  of  some  expe- 
rience." 

"  Yes,  you  do  nobly  there ;  I  can't  describe  how  I  ad- 
mire you,"  he  cried.  "Not  that  she  will  ever  need  it; 
she  has  had  every  advantage.  God  knows  what  I  have 
done  to  deserve  her.  0  man,  what  a  responsibility  this 
is  for  a  rough  fellow  and  not  always  truthful ! " 

"  Brace  up,  old  man,  brace  up  !  "  said  I. 

But  when  we  reached  Mamie's  boarding-house,  it  was 
almost  with  tears  that  he  presented  me.  "  Here  is  Lou- 
don, Mamie,"  were  his  words.  "  I  want  you  to  love  him ; 
he  has  a  grand  nature." 

"  You  are  certainly  no  stranger  to  me,  Mr.  Dodd,"  was 
her  gracious  expression.  "  James  is  never  weary  of  des- 
canting on  your  goodness." 

"  My  dear  lady,"  said  I,  "  when  you  know  our  friend 
a  little  better,  you  will  make  a  large  allowance  for  his 
warm  heart.  My  goodness  has  consisted  in  allowing 
him  to  feed  and  clothe  and  toil  for  me  when  he  could  ill 
afford  it.  If  I  am  now  alive,  it  is  to  him  I  owe  it ;  no 
man  had  a  kinder  friend.  You  must  take  good  care  of 
him,"  I  added,  laying  my  hand  on  his  shoulder,  "and 
keep  him  in  good  order,  for  he  needs  it." 


IRONS    IN   THE   FIRE.  153 

Pinkerton  was  much  affected  by  this  speech,  and  so, 
I  fear,  was  Mamie.  I  admit  it  was  a  tactless  perform- 
ance. "  When  you  know  our  friend  a  little  better,"  was 
not  happily  said,  and  even  "  keep  him  in  good  order  for 
he  needs  it "  might  be  construed  into  matter  of  offence ; 
but  I  lay  it  before  you  in  all  confidence  of  your 
acquittal :  was  the  general  tone  of  it  "  patronizing "  ? 
Even  if  such  was  the  verdict  of  the  lady,  I  cannot  but 
suppose  the  blame  was  neither  wholly  hers  nor  wholly 
mine ;  I  cannot  but  suppose  that  Pinkerton  had  already 
sickened  the  poor  woman  of  my  very  name,  so  that  if 
I  had  come  with  the  songs  of  Apollo,  she  must  still  have 
been  disgusted. 

Here,  however,  were  two  finger-posts  to  Paris.  Jim 
was  going  to  be  married,  and  so  had  the  less  need  of  my 
society.  I  had  not  pleased  his  bride,  and  so  was,  per- 
haps, better  absent.  Late  one  evening  I  broached  the 
idea  to  my  friend.  It  had  been  a  great  day  for  me ;  I 
had  just  banked  my  five  thousand  catamountain  dollars ; 
and  as  Jim  had  refused  to  lay  a  finger  on  the  stock,  risk 
and  profit  were  both  wholly  mine,  and  I  was  celebrating 
the  event  with  stout  and  crackers.  I  began  by  telling 
him  that  if  it  caused  him  any  pain  or  any  anxiety  about 
his  affairs,  he  had  but  to  say  the  word,  and  he  should 
hear  no  more  of  my  proposal.  He  was  the  truest  and 
best  friend  I  ever  had  or  was  ever  like  to  have ;  and  it 
would  be  a  strange  thing  if  I  refused  him  any  favour  he 
was  sure  he  wanted.     At  the  same  time  I  wished  him  to 


154  THE   WHECKER. 

be  sure ;  for  my  life  was  wasting  in  my  hands.  I  was 
like  one  from  home ;  all  my  true  interests  summoned  me 
away.  I  must  remind  him,  besides,  that  he  was  now 
about  to  marry  and  assume  new  interests,  and  that  our 
extreme  familiarity  might  be  even  painful  to  his  wife. 
—  "0  no,  Loudon,  I  feel  you  are  wrong  there,"  he 
interjected  warmly,  "she  does  appreciate  your  nature."  — 
So  much  the  better,  then,  I  continued ;  and  went  on  to 
point  out  that  our  separation  need  not  be  for  long;  that, 
in  the  way  affairs  were  going,  he  might  join  me  in  two 
years  with  a  fortune,  small,  indeed,  for  the  States,  but 
in  France  almost  conspicuous ;  that  we  might  unite  our 
resources,  and  have  one  house  in  Paris  for  the  winter 
and  a  second  near  Fontainebleau  for  summer,  where  we 
could  be  as  happy  as  the  day  was  long,  and  bring  up 
little  Pinkertons  as  practical,  artistic  workmen,  far  from 
the  money-hunger  of  the  West.  "Let  me  go  then,"  I 
concluded ;  "  not  as  a  deserter,  but  as  the  vanguard,  to 
lead  the  march  of  the  Pinkerton  men." 

So  I  argued  and  pleaded,  not  without  emotion;  my 
friend  sitting  opposite,  resting  his  chin  upon  his  hand 
and  (but  for  that  single  interjection)  silent.  "I  have 
been  looking  for  this,  Loudon,"  said  he,  when  I  had 
done.  "  It  does  pain  me,  and  that's  the  fact  —  I'm  so 
miserably  selfish.  And  I  believe  it's  a  death  blow  to  the 
picnics ;  for  it's  idle  to  deny  that  you  were  the  heart  and 
soul  of  them  with  your  wand  and  your  gallant  bearing, 
and  wit  and  humour  aud  chivalry,  and  throwing  that 


LRONS   IN   THE   FUIE.  165 

kind  of  society  atmosphere  about  the  thing.  But  for 
all  that,  you're  right,  and  you  ought  to  go.  You  may 
count  on  forty  dollars  a  week ;  and  if  Depew  City  —  one 
of  nature's  centres  for  this  State —  pan  out  the  least  as 
I  expect,  it  may  be  double.  But  it's  forty  dollars  any- 
way ;  and  to  think  that  two  years  ago  you  were  almost 
reduced  to  beggary ! " 

"  I  was  reduced  to  it,"  said  I. 

*'  Well,  the  brutes  gave  you  nothing,  and  I'm  glad  of 
it  now ! "  cried  Jim.  "  It's  the  triumphant  return  I 
glory  in !  Think  of  the  master,  and  that  cold-blooded 
Myner  too  !  Yes,  just  let  the  Depew  City  boom  get  on 
its  legs,  and  you  shall  go ;  and  two  years  later,  day  for 
day,  I'll  shake  hands  with  you  in  Paris,  with  Mamie  on 
my  arm,  God  bless  her  ! " 

We  talked  in  this  vein  far  into  the  night.  I  was 
myself  so  exultant  in  my  new-found  liberty,  and  Pinker- 
ton  so  proud  of  my  triumph,  so  happy  in  my  happiness, 
in  so  warm  a  glow  about  the  gallant  little  woman  of  his 
choice,  and  the  very  room  so  filled  with  castles  in  the 
air  and  cottages  at  Fontainebleau,  that  it  was  little 
wonder  if  sleep  fled  our  eyelids,  and  three  had  followed 
two  upon  the  ofl&ce  clock  before  Pinkerton  unfolded  the 
mechanism  of  his  patent  sofa. 


156  THE    WRECKEK. 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

FACES   ON    THE   CITY   FRONT. 

It  is  very  much  the  custom  to  view  life  as  if  it  were 
exactly  ruled  in  two,  like  sleep  and  waking ;  the  prov- 
inces of  play  and  business  standing  separate.  The  busi- 
ness side  of  my  career  in  San  Francisco  has  been  now 
disposed  of;  I  approach  the  chapter  of  diversion;  and 
it  will  be  found  they  had  about  an  equal  share  in  build- 
ing up  the  story  of  the  Wrecker  —  a  gentleman  whose 
appearance  may  be  presently  expected. 

With  all  my  occupations,  some  six  afternoons  and 
two  or  three  odd  evenings  remained  at  my  disposal 
every  week:  a  circumstance  the  more  agreeable  as  I 
was  a  stranger  in  a  city  singularly  picturesque.  From 
what  I  had  once  called  myself,  The  Amateur  Parisian, 
I  grew  (or  declined)  into  a  waterside  prowler,  a  lin- 
gerer on  wharves,  a  frequenter  of  shy  neighbourhoods, 
a  scraper  of  acquaintance  with  eccentric  characters.  I 
visited  Chinese  and  Mexican  gambling-hells,  German 
secret  societies,  sailors'  boarding-houses,  and  "  dives " 
of  every  complexion  of  the  disreputable  and  dangerous. 
I  have  seen  greasy  Mexican  hands  pinned  to  the  table 
with  a  knife  for  cheating,  seamen  (when  blood-money 
ran  high)  knocked  down  upon  the  public  street  and 
carried   insensible   on   board   short-handed  ships,  shots 


FACES   ON   THE   CITY   FRONT.  157 

exchanged  and  the  smoke  (and  the  company)  dispersing 
from  the  doors  of  the  saloon.  I  have  heard  cokl-minded 
Polacks  debate  upon  the  readiest  method  of  burning 
San  Francisco  to  the  ground,  hot-headed  working  men 
and  women  bawl  and  swear  in  the  tribune  at  the  Sand-, 
lot,  and  Kearney"  himself  open  his  subscription  for  a 
gallows,  name  the  manufacturers  who  were  to  grace  it 
with  their  dangling  bodies,  and  read  aloud  to  the  de- 
lighted multitude  a  telegram  of  adhesion  from  a  member 
of  the  State  legislature  :  all  which  preparations  of  prol- 
etarian war  were  (in  a  moment)  breathed  upon  and 
abolished  by  the  mere  name  and  fame  of  Mr.  Coleman. 
That  lion  of  the  Vigilantes  had  but  to  rouse  himself  and 
shake  his  ears,  and  the  whole  brawling  mob  was  silenced. 
I  could  not  but  reflect  what  a  strange  manner  of  man 
this  was,  to  be  living  unremarked  there  as  a  private 
merchant,  and  to  be  so  feared  by  a  whole  city ;  and  if 
I  was  disappointed,  in  my  character  of  looker-on,  to 
have  the  matter  end  ingloriously  without  the  firing  of 
a  shot  or  the  hanging  of  a  single  millionnaire,  philosophy 
tried  to  tell  me  that  this  sight  was  truly  the  more  pic- 
turesque. In  a  thousand  towns  and  different  epochs  I 
might  have  had  occasion  to  behold  the  cowardice  and 
carnage  of  street  fighting;  where  else,  but  only  there 
and  then,  could  I  have  enjoyed  a  view  of  Coleman  (the 
intermittent  despot)  walking  meditatively  up  hill  in  a 
quiet  part  of  town,  with  a  very  rolling  gait,  and  slapping 
gently  his  great  thigh  ? 


158  THE   WRECKER. 

Minora  canamus.  Tliis  historic  figure  stalks  silently 
through  a  corner  of  the  San  Francisco  of  my  memory : 
the  rest  is  bric-a-brac,  the  reminiscences  of  a  vagrant 
sketcher.  My  delight  was  much  in  slums.  Little  Italy 
was  a  haunt  of  mine  ;  there  I  would  look  in  at  the  win- 
dows of  small  eating-shops,  transported  bodily  from 
Genoa  or  Naples,  with  their  macaroni,  and  chianti 
flasks  and  portraits  of  Garibaldi,  and  coloured  political 
caricatures  ;  or  (entering  in)  hold  high  debate  with  some 
ear-ringed  fisher  of  the  bay  as  to  the  designs  of  "Mr. 
Owstria "  and  "  Mr.  Eooshia."  I  was  often  to  be  ob- 
served (had  there  been  any  to  observe  me)  in  that  dis- 
peopled, hill-side  solitude  of  Little  Mexico,  with  its  crazy 
wooden  houses,  endless  crazy  wooden  stairs,  and  perilous 
mountain  goat-paths  in  the  sand.  Chinatown  by  a  thou- 
sand eccentricities  drew  and  held  me;  I  could  never 
have  enough  of  its  ambiguous,  interracial  atmosphere, 
as  of  a  vitalised  museum ;  never  wonder  enough  at  its 
outlandish,  necromantic-looking  vegetables  set  forth  to 
sell  in  commonplace  American  shop-windows,  its  temple 
doors  open  and  the  scent  of  the  joss-stick  streaming 
forth  on  the  American  air,  its  kites  of  Oriental  fashion 
hanging  fouled  in  Western  telegraph-wires,  its  flights  of 
paper  prayers  which  the  trade-wind  hunts  and  dissipates 
along  Western  gutters.  I  was  a  frequent  wanderer  on 
North  Beach,  gazing  at  the  straits,  and  the  huge  Cape- 
Horners  creeping  out  to  sea,  and  imminent  Tamalpais. 
Thence,  on  my  homeward  way,  I  might  visit  that  strange 


FACES   ON   THE   CITY   FRONT.  159 

and  filthy  shed,  earth-paved  and  walled  with  the  cages 
of  wild  animals  and  birds,  where  at  a  ramshackle 
counter,  amid  the  yells  of  monkeys,  and  a  poignant 
atmosphere  of  menagerie,  forty-rod  whiskey  was  admin- 
istered by  a  proprietor  as  dirty  as  his  beasts.  Nor  did 
I  even  neglect  Nob  Hill,  which  is  itself  a  kind  of  slum, 
being  the  habitat  of  the  mere  millionnaire.  There  they 
dwell  upon  the  hill-top,  high  raised  above  man's  clamour, 
and  the  trade-wind  blows  between  their  palaces  about 
deserted  streets. 

But  San  Francisco  is  not  herself  only.  She  is  not 
only  the  most  interesting  city  in  the  Union,  and  the 
hugest  smelting-pot  of  races  and  the  precious  metals. 
She  keeps,  besides,  the  doors  of  the  Pacific,  and  is  the 
port  of  entry  to  another  world  and  an  earlier  epoch  in 
man's  history.  Nowhere  else  shall  you  observe  (in  the 
ancient  phrase)  so  many  tall  ships  as  here  convene  from 
round  the  Horn,  from  China,  from  Sydney,  and  the 
Indies ;  but  scarce  remarked  amid  that  crowd  of  deep- 
sea  giants,  another  class  of  craft,  the  Island  schooner, 
circulates :  low  in  the  water,  with  lofty  spars  and  dainty 
lines,  rigged  and  fashioned  like  a  yacht,  manned  with 
brown-skinned,  soft-spoken,  sweet-eyed  native  sailors, 
and  equipped  with  their  great  double-ender  boats  that 
tell  a  tale  of  boisterous  sea-beaches.  These  steal  out 
and  in  again,  unnoted  by  the  world  or  even  the  news- 
paper press,  save  for  the  line  in  the  clearing  column, 
"  Schooner  So-and-so  for  Yap  and  South  Sea  Islands  "  — 


160  THE  WRECKER. 

steal  out  with  nondescript  cargoes  of  tinned  salmon,  gin, 
bolts  of  gaudy  cotton  stuff,  women's  hats,  and  Waterbury 
watches,  to  return,  after  a  year,  piled  as  high  as  to  the 
eaves  of  the  house  with  copra,  or  wallowing  deep  with 
the  shells  of  the  tortoise  or  the  pearl  oyster.  To  me,  in 
my  character  of  the  Amateur  Parisian,  this  island  traffic, 
and  even  the  island  world,  were  beyond  the  bounds  of 
curiosity,  and  how  much  more  of  knowledge.  I  stood 
there  on  the  extreme  shore  of  the  West  and  of  to-day. 
Seventeen  hundred  years  ago,  and  seven  thousand  miles 
to  the  east,  a  legionary  stood,  perhaps,  upon  the  wall  of 
Antoninus,  and  looked  northward  toward  the  mountains 
of  the  Picts.  For  all  the  interval  of  time  and  space,  I, 
when  I  looked  from  the  cliff-house  on  the  broad  Pacific, 
was  that  man's  heir  and  analogue :  each  of  us  standing 
on  the  verge  of  the  Roman  Empire  (or,  as  we  now  call 
it,  Western  civilization),  each  of  us  gazing  onward  into 
zones  unromanised.  But  I  was  dull.  I  looked  rather 
backward,  keeping  a  kind  eye  on  Paris ;  and  it  required 
a  series  of  converging  incidents  to  change  my  attitude 
of  nonchalance  for  one  of  interest,  and  even  longing, 
which  I  little  dreamed  that  I  should  live  to  gratify. 

The  first  of  these  incidents  brought  me  in  acquaintance 
with  a  certain  San  Francisco  character,  who  had  some- 
thing of  a  name  beyond  the  limits  of  the  city,  and  was 
known  to  many  lovers  of  good  English.  I  had  discov- 
ered a  new  slum,  a  place  of  precarious,  sandy  cliffs,  deep, 
sandy  cuttings,  solitary,  ancient  houses,  and  the  butt- 


FACES   ON   THE  CITY   FKONT.  161 

ends  of  streets.  It  was  already  environed.  The  ranks 
of  the  street-lamps  threaded  it  unbroken.  The  city, 
upon  all  sides  of  it,  was  tightly  packed,  and  growled 
with  traffic.  To-day,  I  do  not  doubt  the  very  landmarks 
are  all  swept  away ;  but  it  offered  then,  within  narrow 
limits,  a  delightful  peace,  and  (in  the  morning,  when  I 
chiefly  went  there)  a  seclusion  almost  rural.  On  a  steep 
sand-hill,  in  this  neighbourhood,  toppled,  on  the  most 
insecure  foundation,  a  certain  row  of  houses,  each  with 
a  bit  of  garden,  and  all  (I  have  to  presume)  inhabited. 
Thither  I  used  to  mount  by  a  crumbling  footpath,  and 
in  front  of  the  last  of  the  houses,  would  sit  down  to 
sketch.  The  very  first  day  I  saw  I  was  observed, 
out  of  the  ground-floor  window,  by  a  youngish,  good- 
looking  fellow,  prematurely  bald,  and  with  an  expression 
both  lively  and  engaging.  The  second,  as  we  were  still 
the  only  figures  in  the  landscape,  it  was  no  more  than 
natural  that  we  should  nod.  The  third,  he  came  fairly 
out  from  his  entrenchments,  praised  my  sketch,  and  with 
the  impromptu  cordiality  of  artists  carried  me  into  his 
apartment;  where  I  sat  presently  in  the  midst  of  a 
museum  of  strange  objects,  —  paddles  and  battle-clubs 
and  baskets,  rough-hewn  stone  images,  ornaments  of 
threaded  shell,  cocoanut  bowls,  snowy  cocoanut  plumes  — 
evidences  and  examples  of  another  earth,  another  cli- 
mate, another  race,  and  another  (if  a  ruder)  culture. 
Nor  did  these  objects  lack  a  fitting  commentary  in  the 
conversation  of  my  new  acquaintance.     Doubtless  ^''ou 


162  THE   WRECKER. 

have  read  liis  book.  You  know  already  how  he  tramped 
and  starved,  and  had  so  fine  a  profit  of  living,  in  his 
days  among  the  islands  ;  and,  meeting  him,  as  I  did,  one 
artist  with  another,  after  mouths  of  oifices  andpienics, 
you  can  imagine  with  what  charm  he  would  speak,  and 
with  what  pleasure  I  would  hear.  It  was  in  such  talks, 
which  we  were  both  eager  to  repeat,  that  I  first  heard  the 
names  —  first  fell  under  the  spell  —  of  the  islands  ;  and 
it  was  from  one  of  the  first  of  them  that  I  returned  (a 
happy  man)  with  Omoo  under  one  arm,  and  my  friend's 
own  adventures  under  the  other. 

The  second  incident  was  more  dramatic,  and  had, 
besides,  a  bearing  on  my  future.  I  was  standing,  one 
day,  near  a  boat-landing  under  Telegraph  Hill.  A  large 
barque,  perhaps  of  eighteen  hundred  tons,  was  coming 
more  than  usually  close  about  the  point  to  reach  her 
moorings;  and  I  was  observing  her  with  languid  iaat- 
tention,  when  I  observed  two  men  to  stride  across  the 
bulwarks,  drop  into  a  shore  boat,  and,  violently  dispos- 
sessing the  boatman  of  his  oars,  pull  toward  the  landing 
where  I  stood.  In  a  surprisingly  short  time  they  came 
tearing  up  the  steps;  and  I  could  see  that  both  were 
too  well  dressed  to  be  foremast  hands  —  the  first  even 
with  research,  and  both,  and  specially  the  first,  appeared 
under  the  empire  of  some  strong  emotion. 

<'  Nearest  police  office  ! "  cried  the  leader. 

"  This  way,"  said  I,  immediately  falling  in  with  their 
precipitate  pace.    "What's  wrong?   What  ship  is  that  ?" 

"  That's  the  Gleaner,''^  he  replied.     "  I  am  chief  officer, 


FACES   ON   THE   CITY   FEONT.  163 

this  gentleman's  third ;  and  we've  to  get  in  our  deposi- 
tions before  the  crew.  You  see  they  might  corral  us 
with  the  captain ;  and  that's  no  kind  of  berth  for  me. 
I've  sailed  with  some  hard  cases  in  my  time,  and  seen 
jjins  flying  like  sand  on  a  squally  day — but  never  a 
match  to  our  old  man.  It  never  let  up  from  the  Hook 
to  the  Farallones  ;  and  the  last  man  was  dropped  not 
sixteen  hours  ago.  Packet  rats  our  men  were,  and  as 
tough  a  crowd  as  ever  sand-bagged  a  man's  head  in ;  but 
they  looked  sick  enough  when  the  captain  started  in 
with  his  fancy  shooting." 

"  0,  he's  done  up,"  observed  the  other.  "  He  won't 
go  to  sea  no  more." 

"You  make  me  tired,"  retorted  his  superior.  "If  he 
gets  ashore  in  one  piece  and  isn't  lynched  in  the  next 
ten  minutes,  he'll  do  yet.  The  owners  have  a  longer 
memory  than  the  public;  they'll  stand  by  him;  they 
don't  find  as  smart  a  captain  every  day  in  the  year." 

"0,  he's  a  son  of  a  gun  of  a  fine  captain,  there  ain't 
no  doubt  of  that,"  concurred  the  other,  heartily.  "  Why, 
I  don't  suppose  there's  been  no  wages  paid  aboard  that 
Gleaner  for  three  trips." 

"No  wages  ?"  I  exclaimed,  for  I  was  still  a  novice  in 
maritime  affairs. 

"Not  to  sailor-men  before  the  mast,"  agreed  the  mate. 
"  Men  cleared  out ;  wasn't  the  soft  job  they  maybe  took 
it  for.     She  isn'  the  first  ship  that  never  paid  wages." 

I  could  not  but  observe  that  our  pace  was  progres- 
sively relaxing ;  and  indeed  I  have  often  wondered  since 


164  "  THE   WRECKER. 

whether  the  hurry  of  the  start  were  not  intended  for 
the  gallery  alone.  Certain  it  is  at  least,  that  when  we 
had  reached  the  police  office,  and  the  mates  had  made 
their  deposition,  and  told  their  horrid  tale  of  five  men 
murdered,  some  with  savage  passion,  some  with  coll 
brutality,  between  Sandy  Hook  and  San  Francisco,  the 
police  were  despatched  in  time  to  be  too  late.  Before  we 
arrived,  the  ruffian  had  slipped  out  upon  the  dock,  had 
mingled  with  the  crowd,  and  found  a  refuge  in  the  house 
of  an  acquaintance ;  and  the  ship  was  only  tenanted  by 
his  late  victims.  Well  for  him  that  he  had  been  thus 
speedy.  Tor  when  word  began  to  go  abroad  among  the 
shore-side  characters,  when  the  last  victim  was  carried 
by  to  the  hospital,  when  those  who  had  escaped  (as  by 
miracle)  from  that  floating  shambles,  began  to  circulate 
and  show  their  wounds  in  the  crowd,  it  was  strange  to 
witness  the  agitation  that  seized  and  shook  that  portion 
of  the  city.  Men  shed  tears  in  public ;  bosses  of  lodg- 
ing-houses, long  inured  to  brutality,  and  above  all, 
brutality  to  sailors,  shook  their  fists  at  heaven :  if  handa 
could  have  been  laid  on  the  captain  of  the  Gleaner,  his 
shrift  would  have  been  short.  That  night  (so  gossip 
reports)  he  was  headed  up  in  a  barrel  and  smuggled 
across  the  bay :  in  two  ships  already  he  had  braved  the 
penitentiary  and  the  gallows ;  and  yet,  by  last  accounts, 
he  now  commands  another  on  the  Western  Ocean. 

As  I  have  said,  I  was  never  quite  certain  whether 
Mr.  Xares  (the  mate)  did  not  intend  that  his  superior 
should  escape.     It  would  have  been  like  his  preference 


FACES   ON    THE   CITY  FRONT.  165 

of  loyalty  to  law ;  it  would  have  been  like  his  prejudice, 
which  was  all  in  favour  of  the  after-guard.  But  it  must 
remain  a  matter  of  conjecture  only.  Well  as  I  came  to 
know  him  in  the  sequel,  he  was  never  communicative  on 
that  point,  nor  indeed  on  any  that  concerned  the  voya^je 
of  the  Gleaner.  Doubtless  he  had  some  reason  for  his 
reticence.  Even  during  our  walk  to  the  police  office,  he 
debated  several  times  with  Johnson,  the  third  officer, 
whether  he  ought  not  to  give  up  himself,  as  well  as  to 
denounce  the  captain.  He  had  decided  in  the  negative, 
arguing  that  "  it  would  probably  come  to  nothing,  and 
even  if  there  was  a  stink,  he  had  plenty  good  friends 
in  San  Francisco."  And  to  nothing  it  came ;  though  it 
must  have  very  nearly  come  to  something,  for  Mr.  Nares 
disappeared  immediately  from  view  and  was  scarce  less 
closely  hidden  than  his  captain. 

Johnson,  on  the  other  hand,  I  often  mot.  I  could 
never  learn  this  man's  country;  and  though  he  him- 
self claimed  to  be  American,  neither  his  English  nor 
his  education  warranted  the  claim.  In  all  likelihood 
he  was  of  Scandinavian  birth  and  blood,  long  pickled 
in  the  forecastles  of  English  and  American  ships.  It 
is  possible  that,  like  so  many  of  his  race  in  similar  posi- 
tions, he  had  already  lost  his  native  tongue.  In  mind, 
at  least,  he  was  quite  denationalised ;  thought  only  in 
English  —  to  call  it  so  ;  and  though  by  nature  one  of 
the  mildest,  kindest,  and  most  feebly  playful  of  man- 
kind, he  had  been  so  long  accvistomed  to  the  cruelty  of 
sea  discipline,   that  his   stories    (told  perhaps   with   a 


166  THE   WKECKER. 

giggle)  would  sometimes  turn  me  chill.  In  appearance, 
he  was  tall,  light  of  weight,  bold  and  high-bred  of  feat- 
ure, dusky-haired,  and  with  a  face  of  a  clean  even  brown : 
the  ornament  of  outdoor  men.  Seated  in  a  chair,  you 
might  have  passed  him  off  for  a  baronet  or  a  military 
officer ;  but  let  him  rise,  and  it  was  Fo'c's'le  Jack  that 
came  rolling  toward  you,  crab-like  ;  let  him  but  open  his 
lips,  and  it  was  Fo'c's'le  Jack  that  piped  and  drawled 
his  ungrammatical  gibberish.  He  had  sailed  (among 
other  places)  much  among  the  islands  ;  and  after  a  Cape 
Horn  passage  with  its  snow-squalls  and  its  frozen  sheets, 
he  announced  his  intention  of  "taking  a  turn  among 
them  Kanakas."  I  thought  I  should  have  lost  him 
soon ;  but  according  to  the  uuAvritten  usage  of  mariners, 
he  had  first  to  dissipate  his  wages.  "  Guess  I'll  have 
to  paint  this  town  red,"  was  his  hyperbolical  expression ; 
for  sure  no  man  ever  embarked  upon  a  milder  course 
of  dissipation,  most  of  his  days  being  passed  in  the  little 
parlour  behind  Black  Tom's  public  house,  with  a  select 
corps  of  old  particular  acquaintances,  all  from  the  South 
Seas,  and  all  patrons  of  a  long  yarn,  a  short  pipe,  and 
glasses  round. 

Black  Tom's,  to  the  front,  presented  the  appearance 
of  a  fourth-rate  saloon,  devoted  to  Kanaka  seamen,  dirt, 
negrohead  tobacco,  bad  cigars,  worse  gin,  and  guitars 
and  banjos  in  a  state  of  decline.  The  proprietor,  a 
powerful  coloured  man,  was  at  once  a  publican,  a  ward 
politician,  leader  of  some  brigade  of  "  lambs  "  or  "  smash- 


FACES   ON   THE  CITY   EHONT.  167 

ers,"  at  tlie  wind  of  whose  clubs  the  party  bosses  and 
the  mayor  were  supposed  to  tremble,  and  (what  hurt 
nothing)  an  active  and  reliable  crimp.  His  front  quar- 
ters, then,  were  noisy,  disreputable,  and  not  even  safe.  I 
have  seen  worse  frequented  saloons  where  there  were 
fewer  scandals ;  for  Tom  was  often  drunk  himself ;  and 
there  is  no  doubt  the  Lambs  must  have  been  a  useful 
body,  or  the  place  would  have  been  closed.  I  remember 
one  day,  not  long  before  an  election,  seeing  a  blind  man, 
very  well  dressed,  led  up  to  the  counter  and  remain  a 
long  while  in  consultation  with  the  negro.  The  pair 
looked  so  ill-assorted,  a.nd  the  awe  with  which  the 
drinkers  fell  back  and  left  them  in  the  midst  of  an  im- 
promptu privacy  was  so  unusual  in  such  a  place,  that  I 
turned  to  my  next  neighbour  with  a  question.  He  told 
me  the  blind  man  was  a  distinguished  party  boss,  called 
by  some  the  King  of  San  Francisco,  but  perhaps  better 
known  by  his  picturesque  Chinese  nickname  of  the 
Blind  White  Devil.  "The  Lambs  must  be  wanted 
pretty  bad,  I  guess,"  my  informant  added.  I  have  here  a 
sketch  of  the  Blind  White  Devil  leaning  on  the  counter ; 
on  the  next  page,  and  taken  the  same  hour,  a  jotting  of 
Black  Tom  threatening  a  whole  crowd  of  customers  with 
a  long  Smith  and  Wesson :  to  such  heights  and  deptlis 
we  rose  and  fell  in  the  front  parts  of  the  saloon. 

Meanwhile,  away  in  the  back  quarters,  sat  the  small 
informal  South  Sea  club,  talking  of  another  world  and 


168  THE  WRECKER. 

surely  of  a  different  century.  Old  schooner  captains  they 
were,  old  South  Sea  traders,  cooks,  and  mates :  fine  crea- 
tures, softened  by  residence  among  a  softer  race :  full 
men  besides,  though  not  by  reading,  but  by  strange 
experience;  and  for  days  together  I  could  hear  their 
yarns  with  an  unfading  pleasure.  All  had  indeed  some 
touch  of  the  poetic ;  for  the  beach-comber,  when  not  a 
mere  ruffian,  is  the  poor  relation  of  the  artist.  Even 
though  Johnson's  inarticulate  speech,  his  "0  yes,  there 
ain't  no  harm  in  them  Kanakas,"  or,  "0  yes,  that's  a 
son  of  a  gun  of  a  fine  island,  mountainious  right  down ; 
I  didn't  never  ought  to  have  left  that  island,"  there 
pierced  a  certain  gusto  of  appreciation :  and  some  of  the 
rest  were  master-talkers.  From  their  long  tales,  their 
traits  of  character  and  unpremeditated  landscape,  there 
began  to  piece  itself  together  in  my  head  some  image 
of  the  islands  and  the  island  life:  precipitous  shores, 
spired  mountain  tops,  the  deep  shade  of  hanging  forests, 
the  unresting  surf  upon  the  reef,  and  the  unending 
peace  of  the  lagoon  ;  sun,  moon,  and  stars  of  an  imperial 
brightness ;  man  moving  in  these  scenes  scarce  fallen, 
and  woman  lovelier  than  Eve  ;  the  primal  curse  abro- 
gated, the  bed  made  ready  for  the  stranger,  life  set  to 
perpetual  music,  and  the  guest  welcomed,  the  boat 
urged,  and  the  long  night  beguiled,  with  poetry  and 
choral  song.  A  man  must  have  been  an  unsuccessful 
artist ;  he  must  have  starved  on  the  streets  of  Paris ;  he 
must  have  been  yoked  to  a  commercial  force  like  Pinker- 


FACES    ON   THE   CITY   FRONT.  169 

ton,  before  he  can  conceive  the  longings  that  at  times 
assailed  me.  The  draughty,  rowdy  city  of  San  Francisco, 
the  bustling  office  where  my  friend  Jim  paced  like  a 
caged  lion  daily  between  ten  and  four,  even  (at  times) 
the  retrospect  of  Paris,  faded  in  comparison.  Many  a 
man  less  tempted  would  have  thrown  up  all  to  realise 
his  visions ;  but  I  was  by  nature  unadventurous  and  un- 
initiative :  to  divert  me  from  all  former  paths  and  send 
me  cruising  through  the  isles  of  paradise,  some  force 
external  to  myself  must  be  exerted ;  Destiny  herself 
must  use  the  fitting  wedge ;  and  little  as  I  deemed  it, 
that  tool  was  already  in  her  hand  of  brass. 

I  sat,  one  afternoon,  in  the  corner  of  a  great,  glassy, 
silvered  saloon,  a  free  lunch  at  my  one  elbow,  at  the 
other  a  "conscientious  nude"  from  the  brush  of  local 
talent ;  when,  with  the  tramp  of  feet  and  a  sudden  buzz 
of  voices,  the  swing-doors  were  flung  broadly  open  and 
the  place  carried  as  by  storm.  The  crowd  which  thus 
entered  (mostly  seafaring  men,  and  all  prodigiously  ex- 
cited) contained  a  sort  of  kernel  or  general  centre  of 
interest,  which  the  rest  merely  surrounded  and  adver- 
tised, as  children  in  the  Old  World  surround  and  escort 
the  Punch-and-Judy  man ;  and  word  went  round  the  bar 
like  wildfire,  that  these  were  Captain  Trent  and  the 
survivors  of  the  British  brig  Flying  Scud,  picked  up  by 
a  British  war-ship  on  Midway  Island,  arrived  that  morn- 
ing in  San  Francisco  Bay,  and  now  fresh  from  making 
the   necessary    declarations.      Presently   I   had   a   good 


170  THE   WRECKER. 

sight  of  them :  four  brown,  seamanlike  fellows,  stand- 
ing by  the  counter,  glass  in  hand,  the  centre  of  a  score 
of  questioners.  One  was  a  Kanaka  —  the  cook,  I  was 
informed ;  one  carried  a  cage  with  a  canary,  which  occa- 
sionally trilled  into  thin  song ;  one  had  his  left  arm  in 
a  sling  and  looked  gentlemanlike,  and  somewhat  sickly, 
as  though  the  injury  had  been  severe  and  he  was  scarce 
recovered;  and  the  captain  himself  —  a  red-faced,  blue- 
eyed,  thick-set  man  of  five  and  forty  —  wore  a  bandage 
on  his  right  hand.  The  incident  struck  me;  I  was 
struck  particularly  to  see  captain,  cook,  and  foremast 
hands  walking  the  street  and  visiting  saloons  in  com- 
pany ;  and,  as  when  anything  impressed  me,  I  got  my 
sketch-book  out,  and  began  to  steal  a  sketch  of  the  four 
castaways.  The  crowd,  sympathising  with  my  design, 
made  a  clear  lane  across  the  room ;  and  I  was  thus 
enabled,  all  unobserved  myself,  to  observe  with  a  still- 
growing  closeness  the  face  and  the  demeanour  of  Captain 
Trent. 

Warmed  by  whiskey  and  encouraged  by  the  eager- 
ness of  the  bystanders,  that  gentleman  was  now 
rehearsing  the  history  of  his  misfortune.  It  was  but 
scraps  that  reached  lue :  how  he  "  filled  her  on  the  star- 
board tack,"  and  how  "it  came  up  sudden  out  of  the 
nor'nor'west,"  and  "  there  she  was,  high  and  dry." 
Sometimes  he  would  appeal  to  one  of  the  men  — 
"That  was  how  it  was,  Jack?"  —  and  the  man  would 
reply,    "That    was    tiie    way    of    it.    Captain    Trent." 


FACES    ON   THE   CITY   FllONT.  171 

Lastly,  lie  started  a  fresh  tide  of  popular  sympathy  by 
enunciating  the  sentiment,  "  Damn  all  these  Admirality 
Charts,  and  that's  what  I  say  ! "  From  the  nodding  of 
heads  and  the  murmurs  of  assent  that  followed,  I 
coidd  see  that  Captain  Trent  had  established  himself  in 
the  public  mind  as  a  gentleman  and  a  thorough  navi- 
gator: about  which  period,  my  sketch  of  the  four  men 
and  the  canary-bird  being  finished,  and  all  (especially 
the  canary-bird)  excellent  likenesses,  I  buckled  up  my 
book,  and  slipped  from  the  saloon. 

Little  did  I  suppose  that  I  was  leaving  Act  I,  Scene  I, 
of  the  drama  of  my  life ;  and  yet  the  scene,  or  rather  the 
captain's  face,  lingered  for  some  time  in  my  memory.  I 
was  no  prophet,  as  I  say ;  but  I  was  something  else :  I 
was  an  observer ;  and  one  thing  I  knew,  I  knew  when  a 
man  was  terrified.  Captain  Trent,  of  the  British  brig 
Flying  Scud,  had  been  glib ;  he  had  been  ready ;  he  had 
been  loud ;  but  in  his  blue  eyes  I  could  detect  the  chill, 
and  in  the  lines  of  his  countenance  spy  the  agitation  of 
perpetual  terror.  "Was  he  trembling  for  his  certificate  ? 
In  my  judgment,  it  was  some  livelier  kind  of  fear  that 
thrilled  in  the  man's  marrow  as  he  turned  to  drink. 
Was  it  the  result  of  recent  shock,  and  had  he  not  yet 
recovered  the  disaster  to  his  brig  ?  I  remembered  how 
a  friend  of  mine  had  been  in  a  railway  accident,  and 
shook  and  started  for  a  month;  and  although  Captain 
Trent  of  the  Flying  Scud  had  none  of  the  appearance  of 
a  nervous  man,  I  told  myself,  with  incomplete  convic- 
tion, that  his  must  be  a  similar  case. 


172  THE   WRECKEE. 

CHAPTEE  IX. 

THE   WRECK   OF    THE    "  FLYING    SCUD." 

The  next  morning  I  found  Pinkerton,  who  had  risen 
before  me,  seated  at  our  usual  table,  and  deep  in  the 
perusal  of  what  I  will  call  the  Daily  Occidental.  This 
was  a  paper  (I  know  not  if  it  be  so  still)  that  stood  out 
alone  among  its  brethren  in  the  West ;  the  others,  down 
to  their  smallest  item,  were  defaced  with  capitals,  head 
lines,  alliterations,  swaggering  misquotations,  and  the 
shoddy  picturesque  and  unpathetic  pathos  of  the  Harry 
Millers :  the  Occidental  alone  appeared  to  be  written  by 
a  dull,  sane,  Christian  gentleman,  singly  desirous  of 
communicating  knowledge.  It  had  not  only  this  merit, 
which  endeared  it  to  me,  but  was  admittedly  the  best 
informed  on  business  matters,  which  attracted  Pinkerton. 

"Loudon,"  said  he,  looking  up  from  the  journal,  "you 
sometimes  think  I  have  too  many  irons  in  the  fire.  My 
notion,  on  the  other  hand,  is,  when  you  see  a  dollar 
lying,  pick  it  up !  Well,  here  I've  tumbled  over  a  whole 
pile  of  'em  on  a  reef  in  the  middle  of  the  Pacific." 

"  Why,  Jim,  you  miserable  fellow ! "  I  exclaimed ; 
"  haven't  we  Depew  City,  one  of  God's  green  centres  for 
this  State  ?  haven't  we  —  " 

"Just  listen  to  this,"  interrupted  Jim.  "It's  miser- 
able copy ;  these  Occidental  reporter  fellows  have  no  fire  j 


THE   WllECK   OF   THE    "•  FLYING   SCUD."         173 

but  the  facts  are  right  enough,  I  guess."     And  he  began 
to  read :  — 

"Wreck  of  the  British  Brig,  'Flying  Scud.' 

"H.  B.  M.  S.  Tempest,  which  arrived  yesterday  at  this 
port,  brings  Captain  Trent  and  four  men  of  the  British 
brig  Flying  Scud,  cast  away  February  12th  on  Midway 
Island,  and  most  providentially  rescued  the  next  day. 
The  Flying  Scud  was  of  200  tons  burthen,  owned  in 
London,  and  has  been  out  nearly  two  years  tramping. 
Captain  Trent  left  Hong  Kong  December  8th,  bound  for 
this  port  in  rice  and  a  small  mixed  cargo  of  silks,  teas, 
and  China  notions,  the  whole  valued  at  $10,000,  fully 
covered  by  insurance.  The  log  shows  plenty  of  fine 
weather,  with  light  airs,  calms,  and  squalls.  In  lat.  28  X., 
long.  177  W.,  his  water  going  rotten,  and  misled  by  Hoyt's 
North  Pacific  Directory,  which  informed  him  there  w^as 
a  coaling  station  on  the  island.  Captain  Trent  put  in  to 
Midway  Island.  He  found  it  a  literal  sandbank,  sur- 
rounded by  a  coral  reef  mostly  submerged.  Birds  were 
very  plenty,  there  was  good  fish  in  the  lagoon,  but  no 
firewood;  and  the  water,  which  could  be  obtained  by 
digging,  brackish.  He  found  good  holding-ground  off 
the  north  end  of  the  larger  bank  in  fifteen  fathoms 
water ;  bottom  sandy,  w'ith  coral  patches.  Here  he 
was  detained  seven  days  by  a  calm,  the  crew  suffering 
severely  from  the  water,  which  was  gone  quite  bad; 
and  it  was  only  on  the  evening  of  the  12th,  that  a  little 


174  THE    WRECKER. 

■wind  sprang  up,  coming  puffy  out  of  N.N.E.  Late  as 
it  was,  Captain  Trent  immediately  weighed  anchor  and 
attempted  to  get  out.  While  the  vessel  was  beating  up 
to  the  passage,  the  wind  took  a  sudden  lull  and  then 
veered  squally  into  N.  and  even  N.N.W.,  driving  the  brig 
ashore  on  the  sand  at  about  twenty  minutes  before  six 
o'clock.  John  Wallen,  a  native  of  Finland,  and  Charles 
Holdorsen,  a  native  of  Sweden,  were  drowned  alongside, 
in  attempting  to  lower  a  boat,  neither  being  able  to 
swim,  the  squall  very  dark,  and  the  noise  of  the  breakers 
drowning  everything.  At  the  same  time  John  Brown, 
another  of  the  crew,  had  his  arm  broken  by  the  falls. 
Captain  Trent  further  informed  the  Occidental  re- 
porter, that  the  brig  struck  heavily  at  first  bows  on, 
he  supposes  upon  coral;  that  she  then  drove  over  the 
obstacle,  and  now  lies  in  sand,  much  down  by  the  head 
and  with  a  list  to  starboard.  In  the  first  collision  she 
must  have  sustained  some  damage,  as  she  was  making 
water  forward.  The  rice  will  probably  be  all  destroyed : 
but  the  more  valuable  part  of  the  cargo  is  fortunately 
in  the  afterhold.  Captain  Trent  was  preparing  his  long- 
boat for  sea,  when  the  providential  arrival  of  the  Tem- 
pest,  pursuant  to  Admiralty  orders  to  call  at  islands  in 
her  course  for  castaways,  saved  the  gallant  captain  from 
all  further  danger.  It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  add  that 
both  the  officers  and  men  of  the  unfortunate  vessel  speak 
in  high  terms  of  the  kindness  they  received  on  board  the 
man-of-war.     We  print  a  list  of  the  su.rvivors :    Jacob 


THE    WKECK   OF   THE    "FLYING   SCUD."  175 

Trent,  master,  of  Hull,  England  ;  Elias  Goddedaal,  mate, 
native  of  Christiansand,  Sweden ;  Ah  Wing,  cook,  native 
of  Sana,  China;  John  Brown,  native  of  Glasgow,  Scot- 
land; John  Hardy,  native  of  London,  England.  The 
Flying  Scud  is  ten  years  old,  and  this  morning  will  be 
sold  as  she  stands,  by  order  of  Lloyd's  agent,  at  public 
auction  for  the  benefit  of  the  underwriters.  The  auc- 
tion will  take  place  in  the  Merchants'  Exchange  at  ten 
o'clock. 

"  Farther  Particulars.  —  Later  in  the  afternoon  the 
Occidental  reporter  found  Lieutenant  Sebright,  first 
ofl&cer  of  H.  B.  M.  S.  Tempest,  at  the  Palace  Hotel.  The 
gallant  officer  was  somewhat  pressed  for  time,  but  con- 
firmed the  account  given  by  Captain  Trent  in  all  particu- 
lars. He  added  that  the  Flying  Scud  is  in  an  excellent 
berth,  and  except  in  the  highly  improbable  event  of  a 
heavy  N.W.  gale,  might  last  until  next  winter." 

"  You  will  never  know  anything  of  literature,"  said  I, 
when  Jim  had  finished.  "  That  is  a  good,  honest,  plain 
piece  of  work,  and  tells  the  story  clearly.  I  see  only 
one  mistake  :  the  cook  is  not  a  Chinaman ;  he  is  a  Kan- 
aka, and  I  think  a  Hawaiian." 

"  Why,  how  do  you  know  that  ?  "  asked  Jim. 

"  I  saw  the  whole  gang  yesterday  in  a  saloon,"  said  L 
"I  even  heard  the  tale,  or  might  have  heard  it,  from 
Captain  Trent  himself,  who  struck  me  as  thirsty  and 
nervous." 


176  THE   WRECKER. 

"  Well,  that's  neither  here  nor  there,"  cried  Pinkerton. 
"The  point  is,  how  about  these  dollars  lying  on  a  reef  ?  " 

"Will  it  pay?"  I  asked. 

"  Pay  like  a  sugar  trust !  "  exclaimed  Pinkerton. 
"  Don't  you  see  what  this  British  officer  says  about  the 
safety  ?  Don't  you  see  the  cargo's  valued  at  ten  thou- 
sand ?  Schooners  are  begging  just  noAV ;  I  can  get  my 
pick  of  them  at  two  hundred  and  fifty  a  month ;  and 
how  does  that  foot  up  ?  It  looks  like  three  hundred  per 
cent  to  me." 

"You  forget,"  I  objected,  "the  captain  himself  de- 
clares the  rice  is  damaged." 

"That's  a  point,  I  know,"  admitted  Jim.  "But  the 
rice  is  the  sluggish  article,  anyway;  it's  little  more 
account  than  ballast ;  it's  the  tea  and  silks  that  I  look 
to :  all  we  have  to  find  is  the  proportion,  and  one  look  at 
the  manifest  will  settle  that.  I've  rung  up  Lloyd's  on 
purpose ;  the  captain  is  to  meet  me  there  in  an  hour,  and 
then  I'll  be  as  posted  on  that  brig  as  if  I  built  her. 
Besides,  you've  no  idea  what  pickings  there  are  about  a 
wreck  —  copper,  lead,  rigging,  anchors,  chains,  even  the 
crockery,  Loudon ! " 

"You  seem  to  me  to  forget  one  trifle,"  said  I.  "Be- 
fore you  pick  that  wreck,  you've  got  to  buy  her,  and 
how  much  will  she  cost  ?  " 

"  One  hundred  dollars,"  replied  Jim,  with  the  prompti- 
tude of  an  automaton. 

"  How  on  earth  do  you  guess  that  ?  "  I  cried. 


THE   WEECK   OF   THE   "  FLYING   SCUD."         177 

"I  don't  giiess ;  I  know  it,"  answered  the  Commercial 
Force.  "  My  dear  boy,  I  may  be  a  galoot  about  litera- 
ture, but  you'll  always  be  an  outsider  in  business.  How 
do  you  suppose  I  bought  the  James  L.  Moody  for  two 
hundred  and  fifty,  her  boats  alone  worth  four  times  the 
money  ?  Because  my  name  stood  first  in  the  list. 
Well,  it  stands  there  again;  I  have  the  naming  of  the 
figure,  and  I  name  a  small  one  because  of  the  distance : 
but  it  wouldn't  matter  what  I  named ;  that  would  be  the 
price." 

"  It  sounds  mysterious  enough,"  said  I.  "  Is  this  pub- 
lic auction  conducted  in  a  subterranean  vault  ?  Could 
a  plain  citizen  —  myself,  for  instance  —  come  and  see  ?  " 

"  0,  everything's  open  and  above  board ! "  he  cried 
indignantly.  "Anybody  can  come,  only  nobody  bids 
against  us ;  and  if  he  did,  he  would  get  frozen  out.  It's 
been  tried  before  now,  and  once  was  enough.  We  hold 
the  plant ;  we've  got  the  connection ;  we  can  afford  to  go 
higher  than  any  outsider ;  there's  two  million  dollars  in 
the  ring;  and  we  stick  at  nothing.  Or  suppose  any- 
body did  buy  over  our  head — I  tell  you,  Loudon,  he 
would  think  this  town  gone  crazy ;  he  could  no  more  get 
business  through  on  the  city  front  than  I  can  dance ; 
schooners,  divers,  men  —  all  he  wanted  —  the  prices 
would  fly  right  up  and  strike  him." 

"  But  how  did  you  get  in  ?  "  I  asked.  "  You  Avere 
once  an  outsider  like  your  neighbours,  I  suppose  ?  " 

"  I  took  hold  of  that  thing,  Loudon,  and  just  studied 


178  THE   WRECKER. 

it  up,"  lie  replied.  "  It  took  my  fancy ;  it  was  so  roman- 
tic, and  then  I  saw  there  was  boodle  in  the  thing ;  and 
I  figured  on  the  business  till  no  man  alive  could  give  me 
points.  Nobody  knew  I  had  an  eye  on  wrecks  till  one 
fine  morning  I  dropped  in  upon  Douglas  B.  Longhurst 
in  his  den,  gave  him  all  the  facts  and  figures,  and  put 
it  to  him  straight :  '  Do  you  want  me  in  this  ring  ?  or 
shall  I  start  another  ? '  He  took  half  an  hour,  and  when 
I  came  back,  'Pink,'  says  he,  'I've  put  your  name  on.' 
The  first  time  I  came  to  the  top,  it  was  that  Moody 
racket ;  now  it's  the  Flying  Scud." 

Whereupon  Pinkerton,  looking  at  his  watch,  uttered 
an  exclamation,  made  a  hasty  appointment  with  myself 
for  the  doors  of  the  Merchants'  Exchange,  and  fled  to 
examine  manifests  and  interview  the  skipper.  I  finished 
my  cigarette  with  the  deliberation  of  a  man  at  the  end 
of  many  picnics ;  reflecting  to  myself  that  of  all  forms 
of  the  dollar  hunt,  this  wrecking  had  by  far  the  most 
address  to  my  imagination.  Even  as  I  went  down  town, 
in  the  brisk  bustle  and  chill  of  the  familiar  San  Francisco 
thoroughfares,  I  was  haunted  by  a  vision  of  the  wreck, 
baking  so  far  away  in  the  strong  sun,  under  a  cloud  of 
sea-birds ;  and  even  then,  and  for  no  better  reason,  my 
heart  inclined  towards  the  adventure.  If  not  myself, 
something  that  was  mine,  some  one  at  least  in  my  em- 
ployment should  voyage  to  that  ocean-bounded  pin-point 
and  descend  to  that  deserted  cabin. 

Pinkerton  met  me  at  the  appointed  moment,  pinched 


THE   WRECK   OF   THE   "  FLYING   SCUD."         179 

of  lip  and  more  than  usually  erect  of  bearing,  like  one 
conscious  of  great  resolves. 

"  Well  ?  "  I  asked. 

"Well,"  said  he,  "it  might  be  better,  and  it  might  be 
worse.  This  Captain  Trent  is  a  remarkably  honest  fel- 
low—  one  out  of  a  thousand.  As  soon  as  he  knew  I  was 
in  the  market,  he  owned  up  about  the  rice  in  so  many 
words.  By  his  calculation,  if  there's  thirty  mats  of  it 
saved,  it's  an  outside  figure.  However,  the  manifest  was 
cheerier.  There's  about  five  thousand  dollars  of  the 
whole  value  in  silks  and  teas  and  nut-oils  and  that,  all 
in  the  lazarette,  and  as  safe  as  if  it  was  in  Kearney 
Street.  The  brig  was  new  coppered  a  year  ago.  There's 
upwards  of  a  hundred  and  fifty  fathom  away-up  chain. 
It's  not  a  bonanza,  but  there's  boodle  in  it;  and  we'll 
try  it  on." 

It  was  by  that  time  hard  on  ten  o'clock,  and  we  turned 
at  once  into  the  place  of  sale.  The  Flying  Said,  al- 
though so  important  to  ourselves,  appeared  to  attract  a 
very  humble  share  of  popular  attention.  The  auctioneer 
was  surrounded  by  perhaps  a  score  of  lookers-on,  big 
fellows,  for  the  most  part,  of  the  true  Western  build, 
long  in  the  leg,  broad  in  the  shoulder,  and  adorned  (to 
a  plain  man's  taste)  with  needless  finery.  A  jaunty, 
ostentatious  comradeship  prevailed.  Bets  were  flying, 
and  nicknames.  "The  boys"  (as  they  would  have  called 
themselves)  were  very  boyish;  and  it  was  plain  they 
were  here  in  mirth,  and  not  on  business.     Behind,  and 


180  THE   WRECKER. 

certainly  in  strong  contrast  to  these  gentlemen,  I  could 
detect  the  figure  of  my  friend  Captain  Trent,  come  (as 
I  could  very  Avell  imagine  that  a  captain  would)  to  hear 
the  last  of  his  old  vessel.  Since  yesterday,  he  had 
rigged  himself  anew  in  ready-made  black  clothes,  not 
very  aptly  fitted ;  the  upper  left-hand  pocket  showing  a 
corner  of  silk  handkerchief,  the  lower,  on  the  other  side, 
bulging  with  papers.  Pinkerton  had  just  given  this 
man  a  high  character.  Certainly  he  seemed  to  have  been 
very  frank,  and  I  looked  at  him  again  to  trace  (if  possi- 
ble) that  virtue  in  his  face.  It  was  red  and  broad  and 
flustered  and  (I  thought)  false.  The  whole  man  looked 
sick  with  some  unknown  anxiety ;  and  as  he  stood  there, 
unconscious  of  my  observation,  he  tore  at  his  nails, 
scowled  on  the  floor,  or  glanced  suddenly,  sharply,  and 
fearfully  at  passers-by.  I  was  still  gazing  at  the  man  in 
a  kind  of  fascination,  when  the  sale  began. 

Some  preliminaries  were  rattled  through,  to  the  irrev- 
erent, uninterrupted  gambolling  of  the  boys ;  and  then, 
amid  a  trifle  more  attention,  the  auctioneer  sounded  for 
some  two  or  three  minutes  the  pipe  of  the  charmer. 
Fine  brig  —  new  copper  —  valuable  fittings  —  three  fine 
boats  —  remarkably  choice  cargo  —  what  the  auctioneer 
woiild  call  a  perfectly  safe  investment ;  nay,  gentlemen, 
he  would  go  further,  he  would  put  a  figure  on  it:  he 
had  no  hesitation  (had  that  bold  auctioneer)  in  putting 
it  in  figures ;  and  in  his  view,  what  with  this  and  that, 
and  one  thing  and  another,  the  purchaser  might  expect 


THE   WRECK   OF   THE    "  FLYING   SCUD."         181 

to  clear  a  sum  equal  to  the  entire  estimated  value  of  the 
cargo  ;  or,  gentlemen,  in  other  words,  a  sum  of  ten  thou- 
sand dollars.  At  this  modest  computation  the  roof  im- 
mediately above  the  speaker's  head  (I  suppose,  through 
the  intervention  of  a  spectator  of  ventriloquial  tastes) 
uttered  a  clear  "  Cock-a-doodle-doo  ! "  —  whereat  all 
laughed,  the  auctioneer  himself  obligingly  joining. 

"Now,  gentlemen,  what  shall  we  say,"  resumed  that 
gentleman,  plainly  ogling  Pinkerton,  —  "  what  shall  we 
say  for  this  remarkable  opportunity  ?  " 

"  One  hundred  dollars,"  said  Pinkerton. 

"  One  hundred  dollars  from  Mr.  Pinkerton,"  went  the 
auctioneer,  "one  hundred  dollars.  No  other  gentleman 
inclined  to  make  any  advance  ?  One  hundred  dollars, 
only  one  hundred  dollars  .  -  ." 

The  auctioneer  was  droning  on  to  some  such  tune  as 
this,  and  I,  on  my  part,  was  watching  with  something 
between  sympathy  and  amazement  the  undisguised  emo- 
tion, of  Captain  Trent,  when  we  were  all  startled  by  the 
interjection  of  a  bid. 

"And  fifty,"  said  a  sharp  voice. 

Pinkerton,  the  auctioneer,  and  the  boys,  who  were  all 
equally  in  the  open  secret  of  the  ring,  were  now  all 
equally  and  simultaneously  taken  aback. 

"  I  beg  your  pardon,"  said  the  auctioneer.  "  Anybody 
bid?" 

"And  fifty,"  reiterated  the  voice,  which  I  was  now- 
able  to  trace  to  its  origin,  on  the  lips  of  a  small,  un- 


182  THE   WRECKER. 

Beemly  rag  of  human-kind.  The  speaker's  skin  was 
gray  and  blotched ;  he  spoke  in  a  kind  of  broken  song, 
with  much  variety  of  key;  his  gestures  seemed  (as  in 
the  disease  called  Saint  Vitus's  dance)  to  be  imperfectly 
Under  control ;  he  was  badly  dressed ;  he  carried  himself 
with  an  air  of  shrinking  assumption,  as  though  he  were 
proud  to  be  where  he  was  and  to  do  what  he  was  doing, 
and  yet  half  expected  to  be  called  in  question  and 
kicked  out.  I  think  I  never  saw  a  man  more  of  a  piece ; 
and  the  type  was  new  to  me  ;  I  had  never  before  set 
eyes  upon  his  parallel,  and  I  thought  instinctively  of 
Balzac  and  the  lower  regions  of  the  ComMie  Humaine. 

Pinkerton  stared  a  moment  on  the  intruder  with  no 
friendly  eye,  tore  a  leaf  from  his  note-book,  and  scribbled 
a  line  in  pencil,  turned,  beckoned  a  messenger  boy,  and 
whispered  "  To  Longhurst."  Next  moment,  the  boy 
had  sped  upon  his  errand,  and  Pinkerton  was  again  fac- 
ing the  auctioneer. 

"  Two  hundred  dollars,"  said  Jim. 

"And  fifty,"  said  the  enemy. 

"  This  looks  lively,"  whispered  I  to  Pinkerton. 

"  Yes ;  the  little  beast  means  cold  drawn  biz,"  re- 
turned my  friend.  "Well,  he'll  have  to  have  a  lesson. 
Wait  till  I  see  Longhurst.  Three  hundred,"  he  added 
aloud. 

"  And  fifty,"  came  the  echo. 

It  was  about  this  moment  when  my  eye  fell  again  on 
Captain   Trent.     A  deeper   shade   had   mounted  to  his 


THE    WRECK   OF   THE   "  FLYING   SCUD."         183 

crimson  face :  the  new  coat  was  unbuttoned  and  all 
flying  open ;  the  new  silk  handkerchief  in  busy  requisi- 
tion ;  and  the  man's  eye,  of  a  clear  sailor  blue,  shone 
glassy  with  excitement.  He  was  anxious  still,  but  now 
(if  I  could  read  a  face)  there  was  hope  in  his  anxiety. 

"Jim,"  I  whispered,  "look  at  Trent.  Bet  you  what 
you  please,  he  was  expecting  this." 

"Yes,"  was  the  reply,  "there's  some  blame'  thing 
going  on  here."     And  he  renewed  his  bid. 

The  figure  had  run  iip  into  the  neighbourhood  of  a  thou- 
sand when  I  was  aware  of  a  sensation  in  the  faces  oppo- 
site, and  looking  over  my  shoulder,  saw  a  very  large, 
bland,  handsome  man  come  strolling  forth  and  make  a 
little  signal  to  the  auctioneer. 

"  One  word,  Mr.  Borden,"  said  he ;  and  then  to  Jim, 
"  Well,  Pink,  where  are  we  up  to  now  ?  " 

Pinkerton  gave  him  the  figure.  "  I  ran  up  to  that  on 
my  own  responsibility,  Mr.  Longhurst,"  he  added,  with  a 
flush.     "I  thought  it  the  square  thing." 

"And  so  it  was,"  said  Mr.  Longhurst,  patting  him 
kindly  on  the  shoulder,  like  a  gratified  uncle.  "  Well, 
you  can  drop  out  now  ;  we  take  hold  ourselves.  You 
can  run  it  up  to  five  thousand  ;  and  if  he  likes  to  go 
beyond  that,  he's  welcome  to  the  bargain." 

"  By  the  by,  who  is  he  ?  "  asked  Pinkerton.  "  He 
looks  away  down." 

"  I've  sent  Billy  to  find  out."  And  at  the  very  moment 
Mr.  Longhurst  received  from  the  hands  of  one  of  the 


184  THE   WllECKER. 

expensive  young  gentlemen  a  folded  paper.  It  was 
passed  round  from  one  to  another  till  it  came  to  me,  and 
I  read :  "  Harry  D.  Bellairs,  Attorney-at-Law  ;  defended 
Clara  Vardeu  ;  twice  nearly  disbarred." 

"  Well,  that  gets  me ! "  observed  Mr.  Longhurst. 
"  Who  can  have  put  up  a  shyster  ^  like  that  ?  Nobody 
with  money,  that's  a  sure  thing.  Suppose  you  tried 
a  big  bluff?  I  think  I  would.  Pink.  Well,  ta-ta! 
Your  partner,  Mr.  Dodd  ?  Happy  to  have  the  pleasure 
of  your  acquaintance,  sir."  And  the  great  man  with- 
drew. 

"  Well,  what  do  you  think  of  Douglas  B.  ?  "  whispered 
Pinkerton,  looking  reverently  after  him  as  he  departed. 
"Six  foot  of  perfect  gentleman  and  culture  to  his 
boots." 

During  this  interview  the  auction  had  stood  trans- 
parently arrested,  the  auctioneer,  the  spectators,  and 
even  Bellairs,  all  well  aware  that  Mr.  Longhurst  was 
the  principal,  and  Jim  but  a  speaking-trumpet.  But  now 
that  the  Olympian  Jupiter  was  gone,  Mr.  Borden  thought 
proper  to  affect  severity. 

"■  Come,  come,  Mr.  Pinkerton.  Any  advance  ? "  he 
snapped. 

And  Pinkerton,  resolved  on  the  big  bluff,  replied, 
"  Two  thousand  dollars." 

Bellairs  preserved  his  composure.     "And  fifty,"  said 

1  A  low  lawyer. 


THE   WRECK   OF   THE   "  FLYING    SCUD."         185 

he.  But  there  was  a  stir  among  the  onlookers,  and  what 
was  of  more  importance,  Captain  Trent  had  turned  pale 
and  visibly  gulped. 

"  Pitch  it  in  again,  Jim,"  said  I.  "  Trent  is  weaken- 
ing." 

"  Three  thousand,"  said  Jim. 

"  And  fifty,"  said  Bellairs. 

And  then  the  bidding  returned  to  its  original  move- 
ment by  hundreds  and  fifties  ;  but  I  had  been  able  in 
the  meanwhile  to  draw  two  conclusions.  In  the  first 
place,  Bellairs  had  made  his  last  advance  with  a  smile  of 
gratified  vanity ;  and  I  could  see  the  creature  was  glory- 
ing in  the  kicdos  of  an  unusual  position  and  secure  of 
ultimate  success.  In  the  second,  Trent  had  once  more 
changed  colour  at  the  thousand  leap,  and  his  relief, 
when  he  heard  the  answering  fifty,  was  manifest  and 
unaffected.  Here  then  was  a  problem :  both  were  pre- 
sumably in  the  same  interest,  yet  the  one  was  not  in  the 
confidence  of  the  other.  Nor  was  this  all.  A  few  bids 
later  it  chanced  that  my  eye  encountered  that  of  Captain 
Trent,  and  his,  which  glittered  with  excitement,  was 
instantly,  and  I  thought  guiltily,  withdrawn.  He 
wished,  then,  to  conceal  his  interest  ?  As  Jim  had  said, 
there  was  some  blamed  thing  going  on.  And  for  cer- 
tain, here  were  these  two  men,  so  strangely  united,  so 
strangely  divided,  both  sharp-set  to  keep  the  wreck  from 
us,  and  that  at  an  exorbitant  figure. 

Was  the  wreck  worth  more  than   we  supposed  ?     A 


186  THE    WKECKER. 

sudden  heat  was  kindled  in  my  brain;  the  bids  were 
nearing  Longhurst's  limit  of  five  thousand;  another 
minute,  and  all  would  be  too  late.  Tearing  a  leaf  from 
my  sketch-book,  and  inspired  (I  suppose)  by  vanity  in 
my  own  powers  of  inference  and  observation,  I  took  the 
one  mad  decision  of  my  life.  " If  you  care  to  go  ahead" 
I  wrote,  "  7'm  in  for  all  I^m  worth.'' 

Jim  read,  and  looked  round  at  me  like  one  bewildered; 
then  his  eyes  lightened,  and  turning  again  to  the  auc- 
tioneer, he  bid,  "  Five  thousand  one  hundred  dollars." 

"  And  fifty,"  said  monotonous  Bellairs. 

Presently  Pinkerton  scribbled,  "  Wliat  can  it  he  ?  "  and 
I  answered,  still  on  paper :  "  /  canH  imagine  ;  hut  there's 
something.  Watch  Bellairs  ;  he'll  go  up  to  the  ten  thou- 
sand; see  if  he  don't." 

And  he  did,  and  we  followed.  Long  before  this,  word 
had  gone  abroad  that  there  was  battle  royal:  we  were 
surrounded  by  a  crowd  that  looked  on  wondering;  and 
when  Pinkerton  had  offered  ten  thousand  dollars  (the 
outside  value  of  the  cargo,  even  were  it  safe  in  San 
Prancisco  Bay),  and  Bellairs,  smirking  from  ear  to  ear 
to  be  the  centre  of  so  much  attention,  had  jerked  out  his 
answering,  "And  fifty,"  wonder  deepened  to  excitement. 

"Ten  thousand  one  hundred,"  said  Jim;  and  even 
as  he  spoke,  he  made  a  sadden  gesture  with  his  hand, 
his  face  changed,  and  I  could  see  that  he  had  guessed, 
or  thought  that  he  had  guessed,  the  mystery.  As  he 
scrawled  another  memorandum  in  his  note-book,  his  hand 
shook  like  a  telegraph-operator's. 


THE   WRECK   OF   THE   "  FLYING  SCUD."         187 

"Chinese  ship,"  ran  the  legend;  and  then,  in  big, 
tremulous  half-text,  and  with  a  flourish  that  overran 
the  margin,  "  Opium ! " 

To  be  sure !  thought  I :  this  must  be  the  secret.  I 
knew  that  scarce  a  ship  came  in  from  any  Chinese 
port,  but  she  carried  somewhere,  behind  a  bulkhead,  or 
in  some  cunning  hollow  of  the  beams,  a  nest  of  the 
valuable  poison.  Doubtless  there  was  some  such  treas- 
ure on  the  Flying  Scud.  How  much  was  it  worth? 
We  knew  not,  we  were  gambling  in  the  dark ;  but  Trent 
knew,  and  Bellairs ;  and  we  could  only  watch  and  judge. 

By  this  time  neither  Pinkerton  nor  I  were  of  sound 
mind.  Pinkerton  was  beside  himself,  his  eyes  like 
lamps.  I  shook  in  every  member.  To  any  stranger 
entering  (say)  in  the  course  of  the  fifteenth  thousand, 
we  should  probably  have  cut  a  poorer  figure  than  Bellairs 
himself.  But  we  did  not  pause  ;  and  the  crowd  watched 
us,  now  in  silence,  now  with  a  buzz  of  whispers. 

Seventeen  thousand  had  been  reached,  when  Douglas 
B.  Longhurst,  forcing  his  way  into  the  opposite  row  of 
faces,  conspicuously  and  repeatedly  shook  his  head  at 
Jim.  Jim's  answer  was  a  note  of  two  words :  "  My 
racket  !"  which,  when  the  great  man  had  perused,  he 
shook  his  finger  warningly,  and  departed,  I  thought, 
with  a  sorrowful  countenance. 

Although  Mr,  Longhurst  knew  nothing  of  Bellairs, 
the  shady  lawyer  knew  all  about  the  Wrecker  Boss.  He 
had  seen  him  enter  the  ring  with  manifest  expectation ; 


188  THE  WRECKER. 

he  saw  liiin  depart,  and  the  bids  continue,  with  manifest 
surprise  and  disappointment.  "  Hullo ! "  he  plainly 
thought,  "  this  is  not  the  ring  I'm  fighting,  then  ? " 
And  he  determined  to  put  on  a  spurt. 

"Eighteen  thousand,"  said  he. 

"  And  fifty,"  said  Jim,  taking  a  leaf  out  of  his  adver- 
sary's book. 

"Twenty  thousand,"  from  Bellairs. 

"  And  fifty,"  from  Jim,  with  a  little  nervous  titter. 

And  with  one  consent  they  returned  to  the  old  pace, 
only  now  it  was  Bellairs  who  took  the  hundreds,  and 
Jim  who  did  the  fifty  business.  But  by  this  time  our 
idea  had  gone  abroad.  I  could  hear  the  word  "  opium  " 
pass  from  mouth  to  mouth ;  and  by  the  looks  directed 
at  us,  I  could  see  we  were  supposed  to  have  some  private 
information.  And  here  an  incident  occurred  highly  typ- 
ical of  San  Francisco.  Close  at  my  back  there  had 
stood  for  some  time  a  stout,  middle-aged  gentleman,  with 
pleasant  eyes,  hair  pleasantly  grizzled,  and  a  ruddy, 
pleasing  face.  All  of  a  sudden,  he  appeared  as  a  third 
competitor,  skied  the  Flying  Scud  with  four  fat  bids  of 
a  thousand  dollars  each,  and  then  as  suddenly  fled  the 
field,  remaining  thenceforth  (as  before)  a  silent,  inter- 
ested spectator. 

Ever  since  Mr.  Longhurst's  useless  intervention,  Bel- 
lairs had  seemed  uneasy ;  and  at  this  new  attack,  he 
began  (in  his  turn)  to  scribble  a  note  between  the  bids. 
I  imagined  naturally  enough  that  it  would  go  to  Captain 


THE  "WRECK  OF  THE   "  FLYING   SCUD."         189 

Trent ;  but  when  it  was  done,  and  tlie  writer  turned  and 
looked  behind  him  in  the  crowd,  to  my  unspeakable 
amazement,  he  did  not  seem  to  remark  the  captain's 
presence. 

"  Messenger  boy,  messenger  boy ! "  I  heard  him  say. 
"  Somebody  call  me  a  messenger  boy." 

At  last  somebody  did,  but  it  was  not  the  captain. 

"He's  sending  for  instructions,"  I  wrote  to  Pinkerton. 

"For  money"  he  wrote  back.  "Shall  I  strike  out?  I 
think  this  is  the  time." 

I  nodded. 

"  Thirty  thousand,"  said  Pinkerton,  making  a  leap  of 
close  upon  three  thousand  dollars. 

I  could  see  doubt  in  Bellairs's  eye ;  then,  sudden  reso- 
lution.    "  Thirty-five  thousand,"  said  he. 

"  Forty  thousand,"  said  Pinkerton. 

There  was  a  long  pause,  during  which  Bellairs's  coun- 
tenance was  as  a  book ;  and  then,  not  much  too  soon  for 
the  impending  hammer,  "Forty  thousand  and  five  dol- 
lars," said  he. 

Pinkerton  and  I  exchanged  eloquent  glances.  We 
were  of  one  mind.  Bellairs  had  tried  a  bluff;  now  he 
perceived  his  mistake,  and  was  bidding  against  time ;  he 
was  trying  to  spin  out  the  sale  until  the  messenger  boy 
returned. 

"  Forty-five  thousand  dollars,"  said  Pinkerton :  his 
voice  was  like  a  ghost's  and  tottered  with  emotion. 

"  Forty-five  thousand  and  five  dollars,"  said  Bellairs. 


190  THE   WRECKER. 

"  Fifty  thousand,"  said  Pinkerton. 

"  I  beg  your  pardon,  Mr.  Pinkerton.  Did  I  hear  you 
make  an  advance,  sir  ?  "  asked  the  auctioneer. 

"I  —  I  have  a  difiBculty  in  speaking,"  gasped  Jim. 
"  It's  fifty  thousand,  Mr.  Borden," 

Bellairs  was  on  his  feet  in  a  moment.  "  Auctioneer," 
he  said,  "  I  have  to  beg  the  favour  of  three  moments  at 
the  telephone.  In  this  matter,  I  am  actiag  on  behalf  of 
a  certain  party  to  whom  I  have  just  written  —  " 

"I  have  nothing  to  do  with  any  of  this,"  said  the 
auctioneer,  brutally.  "  I  am  here  to  sell  this  wreck.  Do 
you  make  any  advance  on  fifty  thousand  ?  " 

"I  have  the  honour  to  explain  to  you,  sir,"  returned 
Bellairs,  with  a  miserable  assumption  of  dignity.  "Fifty 
thousand  was  the  figure  named  by  my  principal ;  but  if 
you  will  give  me  the  small  favour  of  two  moments  at 
the  telephone  —  " 

"  0,  nonsense  ! "  said  the  auctioneer.  "  If  you  make 
no  advance,  I^  knock  it  down  to  Mr.  Pinkerton." 

"  I  warn  you,"  cried  the  attorney,  with  sudden  shrill- 
ness. "Have  a  care  what  you're  about.  You  are  here 
to  sell  for  the  underwriters,  let  me  tell  you  —  not  to  act 
for  Mr.  Douglas  Longhurst.  This  sale  has  been  already 
disgracefully  iaterrupted  to  allow  that  person  to  hold 
a  consultation  with  his  minions.  It  has  been  much  com- 
mented on." 

"  There  was  no  complaint  at  the  time,"  said  the  auc- 
tioneer, manifestly  discountenanced.  "  You  should  have 
complained  at  the  time." 


GOIXG   AT   FIFTY  THOUSAND,   THE  WRECK  OF  THE   HlilC.    FLYING   SCID  I 


THE   WRECK   OF   THE   "FLYING   SCUD."         191 

"  I  am  not  here  to  conduct  this  sale,"  replied  Bellairs ; 
"  I  am  not  paid  for  that." 

"Well,  I  am,  you  see,"  retorted  the  auctioneer,  his 
impudence  quite  restored ;  and  he  resumed  his  sing-song. 
"  Any  advance  on  fifty  thousand  dollars  ?  No  advance 
on  fifty  thousand  ?  No  advance,  gentlemen  ?  Going  at 
fifty  thousand,  the  wreck  of  the  brig  Flying  Scud  —  go- 
ing —  going  —  gone ! " 

"  My  God,  Jim,  can  we  pay  the  money  ?  "  I  cried,  as 
the  stroke  of  the  hammer  seemed  to  recall  me  from  a 
dream. 

"It's  got  to  be  raised,"  said  he,  white  as  a  sheet. 
"It'll  be  a  hell  of  a  strain,  Loudon.  The  credit's  good 
for  it,  I  think ;  but  I  shall  have  to  get  around.  Write 
me  a  cheque  for  your  stulf.  Meet  you  at  the  Occidental 
in  an  hour." 

I  wrote  my  cheque  at  a  desk,  and  I  declare  I  could 
never  have  recognised  my  signature.  Jim  was  gone  in 
a  moment ;  Trent  had  vanished  even  earlier ;  only  Bel- 
lairs remained  exchanging  insults  with  the  auctioneer; 
and  behold !  as  I  pushed  my  way  out  of  the  exchange, 
who  should  run  full  tilt  into  my  arms,  but  the  messenger 
boy? 

It  was  by  so  near  a  margin  that  we  became  the  owners 
of  the  Flying  Scud. 


192  THE   WKECKEK. 


CHAPTER  X. 

IN   WHICH    THE    CREW   VANISH. 

At  the  door  of  the  exchange,  I  found  myself  along- 
side of  the  short,  middle-aged  gentleman  who  had  made 
an  appearance,  so  vigorous  and  so  brief,  in  the  great 
battle. 

"Congratulate  you,  Mr.  Dodd,"  he  said.  "You  and 
your  friend  stuck  to  your  guns  nobly." 

"No  thanks  to  you,  sir,"  I  replied,  "running  us  up  a 
thousand  at  a  time,  and  tempting  all  the  speculators  in 
San  Francisco  to  come  and  have  a  try." 

"  0,  that  was  temporary  insanity,"  said  he ;  "  and  I 
thank  the  higher  powers  I  am  still  a  free  man.  Walk- 
ing this  way,  Mr.  Dodd?  I'll  walk  along  with  you. 
It's  pleasant  for  an  old  fogy  like  myself  to  see  the 
young  bloods  in  the  ring;  I've  done  some  pretty  wild 
gambles  in  my  time  in  this  very  city,  when  it  was  a 
smaller  place  and  I  was  a  younger  man.  Yes,  I  know 
you,  Mr.  Dodd.  By  sight,  I  may  say  I  know  you  ex- 
tremely well,  you  and  your  followers,  the  fellows  in  the 
kilts,  eh  ?  Pardon  me.  But  I  have  the  misfortune  to 
own  a  little  box  on  the  Saucelito  shore.  I'll  be  glad 
to  see  you  there  any  Sunday  —  without  the  fellows  in 
kilts,  you  know ;  and  I  can  give  you  a  bottle  of  wine, 
and  show  you  the  best  collection  of  Arctic  voyages  in 


IN   WHICH   THE   CREW   VANISH.  193 

the  States.  Morgan  is  my  name  —  Judge  Morgan  —  a 
Welshman  and  a  forty-niner." 

"  0,  if  you're  a  pioneer,"  cried  I,  "  come  to  me,  and 
I'll  provide  you  with  an  axe." 

"  You'll  want  your  axes  for  yourself,  I  fancy,"  he  re- 
turned, with  one  of  his  quick  looks.  "  Unless  you  have 
private  knowledge,  there  will  be  a  good  deal  of  rather 
violent  wrecking  to  do  before  you  find  that  —  opium,  do 
you  call  it  ?  " 

"Well,  it's  either  opium,  or  we  are  stark,  staring  mad," 
I  replied.  "  But  I  assure  you  we  have  no  private  infor- 
mation. We  went  in  (as  I  suppose  you  did  yourself) 
on  observation." 

"  An  observer,  sir  ?  "  inquired  the  judge. 

"  I  may  say  it  is  my  trade  —  or,  rather,  was,"  said  I. 

"  Well,  now,  and  what  did  you  think  of  Bellairs  ?  "  he 
asked. 

"  Very  little  indeed,"  said  I. 

"  I  may  tell  you,"  continued  the  judge,  "  that  to  me, 
the  employment  of  a  fellow  like  that  appears  inexplica- 
ble. I  knew  him ;  he  knows  me  too ;  he  has  often  heard 
from  me  in  court ;  and  I  assure  you  the  man  is  utterly 
blown  upon  ;  it  is  not  safe  to  trust  him  with  a  dollar ; 
and  here  we  find  him  dealing  up  to  fifty  thousand.  I 
can't  think  who  can  have  so  trusted  him,  but  I  am  very 
sure  it  was  a  stranger  in  San  Francisco." 

"  Some  one  for  the  owners,  I  suppose,"  said  I. 

"Surely   not!"   exclaimed   the   judge.      "Owners  in 


194  THE  WEECKER. 

London  can  have  nothing  to  say  to  opium  smuggled 
between  Ilong  Kong  and  San  Francisco.  I  should 
rather  fancy  they  would  be  the  last  to  hear  of  it  —  until 
the  ship  was  seized.  No ;  I  was  thinking  of  the  captain. 
But  where  would  he  get  the  money  ?  above  all,  after 
having  laid  out  so  much  to  buy  the  stuff  in  China.  Un- 
less, indeed,  he  were  acting  for  some  one  in  'Frisco ;  and 
in  that  case  —  here  we  go  round  again  in  the  vicious 
circle  —  Bellairs  would  not  have  been  employed." 

"I  think  I  can  assure  you  it  was  not  the  captain," 
said  I ;  "  for  he  and  Bellairs  are  not  acquainted." 

"  Wasn't  that  the  captain,  with  the  red  face  and  col- 
oured handkerchief  ?  He  seemed  to  me  to  follow  Bel- 
lairs's  game  with  the  most  thrilling  interest,"  objected 
Mr.  Morgan. 

"  Perfectly  true,"  said  I ;  "  Trent  is  deeply  interested ; 
he  very  likely  knew  Bellairs,  and  he  certainly  knew 
■what  he  was  there  for ;  but  I  can  put  my  hand  in  the 
fire  that  Bellairs  didn't  know  Trent." 

"Another  singularity,"  observed  the  judge.  "Well, 
we  have  had  a  capital  forenoon.  But  you  take  an  old 
lawyer's  advice,  and  get  to  Midway  Island  as  fast  as  you 
can.  There's  a  pot  of  money  on  the  table,  and  Bellairs 
and  Co.  are  not  the  men  to  stick  at  trifles." 

With  this  parting  counsel.  Judge  Morgan  shook  hands 
and  made  off  along  Montgomery  Street,  while  I  entered 
the  Occidental  Hotel,  on  the  steps  of  which  we  had  fin- 
ished our  conversation.     I  was  well  known  to  the  clerks, 


IN   WHICH   THE   CREW   VANISH.  195 

and  as  soon  as  it  was  understood  that  I  was  there  to 
wait  for  Pinkerton  and  lunch,  I  was  invited  to  a  seat 
inside  the  counter.  Here,  then,  in  a  retired  corner,  I 
was  beginning  to  come  a  little  to  myself  after  these  so 
violent  experiences,  when  who  should  come  hurrying  in, 
and  (after  a  moment  with  a  clerk)  fly  to  one  of  the 
telephone  boxes  but  Mr.  Henry  D.  Bellairs  in  person  ? 
Call  it  what  you  will,  but  the  impulse  was  irresistible, 
and  I  rose  and  took  a  place  immediately  at  the  man's 
back.  It  may  be  some  excuse  that  I  had  often  practised 
this  rery  innocent  form  of  eavesdropping  upon  strangers, 
and  for  fun.  Indeed,  I  scarce  know  anything  that  gives 
a  lower  view  of  man's  intelligence  than  to  overhear  (as 
you  thus  do)  one  side  of  a  communication, 

"Central,"  said  the  attorney,  "2241  and  584  B"  (or 
some  such  numbers)  —  "  Who's  that  ?  —  All  right  — 
Mr.  Bellairs  —  Occidental;  the  wires  are  fouled  in  the 
other  place  —  Yes,  about  three  minutes  —  Yes  —  Yes  — 
Your  figure,  I  am  sorry  to  say  —  No  —  I  had  no  au- 
thority —  Neither  more  nor  less  —  I  have  every  reason 
to  suppose  so  —  0,  Pinkerton,  Montana  Block  —  Yes  — 
Yes  —  Very  good,  sir  —  As  you  will,  sir  —  Disconnect 
584  B." 

Bellairs  turned  to  leave ;  at  sight  of  me  behind  him, 
up  flew  his  hands,  and  he  winced  and  cringed,  as  though 
in  fear  of  bodily  attack.  "  0,  it's  you  ! "  he  cried ;  and 
then,  somewhat  recovered,  "Mr.  Pinkerton's  partner,  I 
believe  ?    I  am  pleased  to  see  you,  sir  —  to  congratulate 


196  THE  WRECKER. 

you  on  your  late  success."     And  with  tliat  he  was  gone, 
obsequiously  bowing  as  he  passed. 

And  now  a  madcap  humour  came  upon  me.  It  was 
plain  Bellairs  had  been  communicating  with  his  prin- 
cipal ;  I  knew  the  number,  if  not  the  name ;  should  I 
ring  up  at  once,  it  was  more  than  likely  he  would  re- 
turn in  person  to  the  telephone ;  why  should  not  1  dash 
(vocally)  into  the  presence  of  this  mysterious  person, 
and  have  some  fun  for  my  money.     I  pressed  the  bell. 

"  Central,"  said  1,  "  connect  again  2241  and  584  B. 

A  phantom  central  repeated  the  numbers ;  there  was 
a  pause,  and  then  "  Two  two  four  one,"  came  in  a  tiny 
voice  into  my  ear  —  a  voice  with  the  English  sing-song 
—  the  voice  plainly  of  a  gentleman.  "Is  that  you 
again,  Mr.  Bellairs  ? "  it  trilled.  "  I  tell  you  it's  no 
use.     Is  that  you,  Mr.  Bellairs  ?     Who  is  that  ?  " 

"I  only  want  to  put  a  single  question,"  said  I,  civilly. 
"Why  do  you  want  to  buy  the  Flying  Scud?" 

No  answer  came.  The  telephone  vibrated  and 
hummed  in  miniature  with  all  the  numerous  talk  of  a 
great  city ;  but  the  voice  of  2241  was  silent.  Once  and 
twice  I  put  my  question ;  but  the  tiny,  sing-song  Eng- 
lish voice,  I  heard  no  more.  The  man,  then,  had  fled  ? 
iled  from,  an  impertinent  question  ?  It  scarce  seemed 
natural  to  me ;  unless  on  the  principle  that  the  wicked 
fleeth  when  no  man  pursueth.  I  took  the  telephone 
list  and  turned  the  number  up :  "  2241,  Mrs.  Keane,  res. 
942  Mission  Street."     And  that,  short  of  driving  to  the 


IN   WHICH   THE  CKEW   V^VNISH.  197 

house  and  renewing  my  impertinence  in  person,  was  all 
that  I  could  do. 

Yet,  as  1  resumed  my  seat  in  the  corner  of  the  office, 
I  was  conscious  of  a  new  element  of  the  uncertain,  the 
underhand,  perhaps  even  the  dangerous,  in  our  adven- 
ture; and  there  was  now  a  new  picture  in  my  mental 
gallery,  to  hang  beside  that  of  the  wreck  under  its 
canopy  of  sea-birds  and  of  Captain  Trent  mopping  his 
red  brow  —  the  picture  of  a  man  with  a  telephone  dice- 
box  to  his  ear,  and  at  the  small  voice  of  a  single  ques- 
tion, struck  suddenly  as  white  as  ashes. 

From  these  considerations  I  was  awakened  by  the 
striking  of  the  clock.  An  hour  and  nearly  twenty 
minutes  had  elapsed  since  Pinkerton  departed  for  the 
money :  he  was  twenty  minutes  behind  time  ;  and  to  me 
who  knew  so  well  his  gluttonous  despatch  of  business 
and  had  so  frequently  admired  his  iron  punctuality, 
the  fact  spoke  volumes.  The  twenty  minutes  slowly 
stretched  into  an  hour;  the  hour  had  nearly  extended 
to  a  second ;  and  I  still  sat  in  my  corner  of  the  office, 
or  paced  the  marble  pavement  of  the  hall,  a  prey  to  the 
most  wretched  anxiety  and  penitence.  The  hour  for 
lunch  was  nearly  over  before  I  remembered  that  I  had 
not  eaten.  Heaven  knows  I  had  no  appetite  ;  but  there 
might  still  be  much  to  do  —  it  was  needful  I  should  keep 
myself  in  proper  trim,  if  it  were  only  to  digest  the  now 
too  probable  bad  news;  and  leaving  word  at  the  office 
for  Pinkerton,  I  sat  down  to  table  and  called  for  soup, 
oysters,  and  a  pint  of  champagne. 


198  THE  WRECKER. 

I  was  not  long  set,  before  my  friend  returned.  He 
looked  pale  and  rather  old,  refused  to  hear  of  food,  and 
called  for  tea. 

"I  suppose  all's  up  ?  "  said  I,  with  an  incredible  sinking. 

"No,"  he  replied;  "I've  pulled  it  through,  Loudon; 
just  pulled  it  through.  I  couldn't  have  raised  another 
cent  in  all  'Frisco.  People  don't  like  it ;  Longhurst  even 
went  back  on  me;  said  he  wasn't  a  three-card-monte 
man." 

"Well,  what's  the  odds?"  said  I.  "That's  all  we 
wanted,  isn't  it  ?  " 

"Loudon,  I  tell  you  I've  had  to  pay  blood  for  that 
money,"  cried  my  friend,  with  almost  savage  energy  and 
gloom.  "It's  all  on  ninety  days,  too;  I  couldn't  get 
another  day  —  not  another  day.  If  we  go  ahead  with 
this  affair,  Loudon,  you'll  have  to  go  yourself  and  make 
the  fur  fly.  I'll  stay  of  course  —  I've  got  to  stay  and 
face  the  trouble  in  this  city ;  though,  I  tell  you,  I  just 
long  to  go.  I  would  show  these  fat  brutes  of  sailors 
what  work  was ;  I  would  be  all  through  that  wreck  and 
out  at  the  other  end,  before  they  had  boosted  themselves 
upon  the  deck !  But  you'll  do  your  level  best,  Loudon ; 
I  depend  on  you  for  that.  You  must  be  all  fire  and  grit 
and  dash  from  the  word  '  go.'  That  schooner  and  the 
boodle  on  board  of  her  are  bound  to  be  here  before  three 
months,  or  its  B.  U.  S.  T.— bust." 

"I'll  swear  I'll  do  my  best,  Jim;    I'll  work  double 


IN   WHICH   THE   CREW   VANISH.  199 

tides,"  said  I.  "  It  is  my  fault  that  you  are  in  this  thing, 
and  I'll  get  you  out  again  or  kill  myself.  But  what  is 
that  you  say  ?  'If  we  go  ahead ?  '  Have  we  any  choice, 
then  ?  " 

"I'm  coming  to  that,"  said  Jim.  "It  isn't  that  I 
doubt  the  investment.  Don't  blame  yourself  for  that; 
you  showed  a  fine,  sound  business  instinct :  I  always 
knew  it  was  in  you,  but  then  it  ripped  right  out.  I 
guess  that  little  beast  of  an  attorney  knew  what  he  was 
doing ;  and  he  wanted  nothing  better  than  to  go  beyond. 
No,  there's  profit  in  the  deal;  it's  not  that;  it's  these 
ninety-day  bills,  and  the  strain  I've  given  the  credit,  for 
I've  been  up  and  down,  borrowing,  and  begging  and 
bribing  to  borrow.  I  don't  believe  there's  another  man 
but  me  in  'Frisco,"  he  cried,  with  a  sudden  fervor  of  self 
admiration,  "who  could  have  raised  that  last  ten  thou- 
sand!—  Then  there's  another  thing.  I  had  hoped  you 
might  have  peddled  that  opium  through  the  islands, 
which  is  safer  and  more  profitable.  But  with  this  three- 
month  limit,  you  must  make  tracks  for  Honolulu  straight, 
and  communicate  by  steamer.  I'll  try  to  put  up  some- 
thing for  you  there ;  I'll  have  a  man  spoken  to  who's 
posted  on  that  line  of  biz.  Keep  a  bright  lookout  for 
him  as  soon's  you  make  the  islands ;  for  it's  on  the 
cards  he  might  pick  you  up  at  sea  in  a  whaleboat  or  a 
steam-launch,  and  bring  the  dollars  right  on  board." 

It  shows  how  much  I  had  suffered  morally  during  my 
sojourn  in  San  Francisco,  that  even  now,  when  our  for- 


200  THE  WRECKER. 

tunes  trembled  in  the  balance,  I  sliould  have  consented 
to  become  a  smuggler  and  (of  all  things)  a  smuggler  of 
opium.  Yet  I  did,  and  that  in  silence ;  without  a  protest, 
not  without  a  twinge. 

"And  suppose,"  said  I,  "suppose  the  opium  is  so 
securely  hidden  that  I  can't  get  hands  on  it." 

"  Then  you  will  stay  there  till  that  brig  is  kindling- 
wood,  and  stay  and  split  that  kindling-wood  with  your 
penknife,"  pied  Pinkerton.  "The  stuff  is  there;  we 
know  that ;  and  it  must  be  found.  But  all  this  is  only 
the  one  string  to  our  bow  —  though  I  tell  you  I've  gone 
into  it  head-first,  as  if  it  was  our  bottom  dollar.  Why,  the 
first  thing  I  did  before  I'd  raised  a  cent,  and  with  this 
other  notion  in  my  head  already  —  the  first  thing  I  did 
was  to  secure  the  schooner.  The  Nora  Creina,  she  is, 
sixty-four  tons,  quite  big  enough  for  our  purpose  since 
the  rice  is  spoiled,  and  the  fastest  thing  of  her  tonnage 
out  of  San  Francisco.  For  a  bonus  of  two  hundred,  and 
a  monthly  charter  of  three,  I  have  her  for  my  own  time ; 
wages  and  provisions,  say  four  hundred  more  :  a  drop  in 
the  bucket.  They  began  firing  the  cargo  out  of  her 
(she  was  part  loaded)  near  two  hours  ago;  and  about 
the  same  time  John  Smith  got  the  order  for  the  stores. 
That's  what  I  call  business." 

"  No  doubt  of  that,"  said  I.     "  But  the  other  notion." 

"Well,  here  it  is,"  said  Jim.  "You  agree  with  me 
that  Bellairs  was  ready  to  go  higher  ?  " 

I  saw  where  he  was  coming.  "  Yes,  —  and  why 
shouldn't  he  ?  "  said  I.     "  Is  that  the  line  ?  " 


IN  WHICH  THE   CREW   VANISH.  201 

"That's  the  line,  Loudon  Dodd,"  assented  Jim.  "If 
Bellairs  and  his  principal  have  any  desire  to  go  me 
better,  I'm  their  man." 

A  sudden  thought,  a  sudden  fear,  shot  into  my  mind. 
What  if  I  had  been  right  ?  What  if  my  childish  pleas- 
antry had  frightened  the  principal  away,  and  thus  de" 
stroyed  our  chance  ?  Shame  closed  my  mouth ;  I  began 
instinctively  a  long  course  of  reticence ;  and  it  was  with- 
out a  word  of  my  meeting  with  Bellairs,  or  my  discovery 
of  the  address  in  Mission  Street,  that  I  continued  the 
discussion. 

"Doubtless  fifty  thousand  was  originally  mentioned 
as  a  round  sum,"  said  I,  "  or  at  least,  so  Bellairs  sup- 
posed. But  at  the  same  time  it  may  be  an  outside  sum ; 
and  to  cover  the  expenses  we  have  already  incurred  for 
the  money  and  the  schooner  —  I  am  far  from  blaming 
you;  I  see  how  needful  it  was  to  be  ready  for  either 
event  —  but  to  cover  them  we  shall  want  a  rather  large 
advance." 

"  Bellairs  will  go  to  sixty  thousand ;  it's  my  belief,  if 
he  were  properly  handled,  he  would  take  the  hundred." 
replied  Pinkerton.  "  Look  back  on  the  way  the  sale  ran 
at  the  end." 

"  That  is  my  own  impression  as  regards  Bellairs,"  I 
admitted.  "The  point  I  am  trying  to  make  is  that 
Bellairs  himself  may  be  mistaken;  that  what  he  sup- 
posed to  be  a  round  sum  was  really  an  outside  figure." 

"  Well,  Loudon,  if  that  is  so,"  said  Jim,  with  extraor- 


202  THE   WRECKER. 

dinary  gravity  of  face  and  voice,  "  if  that  is  so,  let  him 
take  the  Flying  Scud  at  fifty  thousand,  and  joy  go  with 
hcT  !     I  prefer  the  loss." 

"  Is  that  so,  Jim  ?  Are  we  dipped  as  bad  as  that  ?  " 
I  cried. 

c(  We've  put  our  hand  farther  out  than  we  can  pull  it 
in  again,  Loudon,"  he  replied.  ''Why,  man,  that  fifty 
thousand  dollars,  before  we  get  clear  again,  will  cost  us 
nearer  seventy.  Yes,  it  figures  up  overhead  to  more 
than  ten  per  cent  a  month ;  and  I  could  do  no  better, 
and  there  isn't  the  man  breathing  could  have  done  as 
well.  It  was  a  miracle,  Loudon.  I  couldn't  but  admire 
myself.  0,  if  we  had  just  the  four  months !  And  you 
know,  Loudon,  it  may  still  be  done.  With  your  energy 
and  charm,  if  the  worst  comes  to  the  worst,  you  can  run 
that  schooner  as  you  ran  one  of  your  picnics ;  and  we 
may  have  luck.  And,  0,  man !  if  we  do  pull  it  through, 
what  a  dashing  operation  it  will  be !  What  an  adver- 
tisement !  what  a  thing  to  talk  of,  and  remember  all  our 
lives  !  However,"  he  broke  off  suddenly,  "  we  must  try 
the  safe  thing  first.     Here's  for  the  shyster ! " 

There  was  another  struggle  in  my  mind,  whether  I 
should  even  now  admit  my  knowledge  of  the  Mission 
Street  address.  But  I  had  let  the  favourable  moment 
slip.  I  had  now,  which  made  it  the  more  awkward,  not 
merely  the  original  discovery,  but  my  late  suppression 
to  confess.     I  could  not  help  reasoning,  besides,  that  the 


IN   WHICH   THE  CREW    VANISH.  203 

more  natural  course  was  to  approach  the  principal  by 
the  road  of  his  agent's  office ;  and  there  weighed  upon 
my  spirits  a  conviction  that  we  were  already  too  late, 
and  that  the  man  was  gone  two  hours  ago.  Once  more, 
then,  I  held  my  peace ;  and  after  an  exchange  of  words 
at  the  telephone  to  assure  ourselves  he  was  at  home,  we 
set  out  for  the  attorney's  office. 

The  endless  streets  of  any  American  city  pass,  from 
one  end  to  another,  through  strange  degrees  and  vicissi- 
tudes of  splendour  and  distress,  running  under  the  same 
name  between  monumental  warehouses,  the  dens  and 
taverns  of  thieves,  and  the  sward  and  shrubbery  of 
villas.  In  San  Francisco,  the  sharp  inequalities  of  the 
ground,  and  the  sea  bordering  on  so  many  sides,  greatly 
exaggerate  these  contrasts.  The  street  for  which  we 
were  now  bound  took  its  rise  among  blowing  sands, 
somewhere  in  view  of  the  Lone  Mountain  Cemetery;  ran 
for  a  term  across  that  rather  windy  Olympus  of  Nob 
Hill,  or  perhaps  just  skirted  its  frontier;  passed  almost 
immediately  after  through  a  stage  of  little  houses,  rather 
impudently  painted,  and  offering  to  the  eye  of  the  ob- 
server this  diagnostic  peculiarity,  that  the  huge  brass 
plates  upon  the  small  and  highly  coloured  doors  bore  only 
the  first  names  of  ladies  —  Norah  or  Lily  or  Florence ; 
traversed  China  Town,  where  it  was  doubtless  under- 
mined with  opium  cellars,  and  its  blocks  pierced,  after 
the  similitude  of  rabbit-warrens,  with  a  hundred  doors 


204  THE   WRECKER. 

and  passages  and  galleries ;  enjoyed  a  glimpse  of  high 
publicity  at  the  corner  of  Kearney ;  and  proceeded,  among 
dives  and  warehouses,  towards  the  City  Front  and  the 
region  of  the  water-rats.  In  this  last  stage  of  its  career, 
where  it  was  both  grimy  and  solitary,  and  alternately 
quiet  and  roaring  to  the  wheels  of  drays,  we  found  a 
certain  house  of  some  pretension  to  neatness,  and  fur- 
nished with  a  rustic  outside  stair.  On  the  pillar  of  the 
stair  a  black  plate  bore  in  gilded  lettering  this  device : 
"Harry  D.  Bellairs,  Attorney-at-law.  Consultations, 
9  to  6."  On  ascending  the  stairs,  a  door  was  found  to 
stand  open  on  the  balcony,  with  this  further  inscription, 
"Mr.  BeUairs  In." 

"  I  wonder  what  we  do  next,"  said  I. 

"Guess  we  sail  right  in,"  returned  Jim,  and  suited 
the  action  to  the  word. 

The  room  in  which  we  found  ourselves  was  clean,  but 
extremely  bare.  A  rather  old-fashioned  secretaire  stood 
by  the  wall,  with  a  chair  drawn  to  the  desk ;  in  one 
corner  was  a  shelf  with  half-a-dozen  law  books ;  and  I 
can  remember  literally  not  another  stick  of  furniture. 
One  inference  imposed  itself:  Mr.  Bellairs  was  in  the 
habit  of  sitting  down  himself  and  suffering  his  clients 
to  stand.  At  the  far  end,  and  veiled  by  a  curtain  of  red 
baize,  a  second  door  communicated  with  the  interior  of 
the  house.  Hence,  after  some  coughing  and  stamping, 
we  elicited  the  shyster,  who  came  timorously  forth,  for 


IN   WHICH  THE   CREW   VANISH.  205 

all  the  world  like  a  man  in  fear  of  bodily  assault,  and 
then,  recognising  his  guests,  suffered  from  what  I  can 
only  call  a  nervous  paroxysm  of  courtesy. 

"  Mr.  Pinkerton  and  partner !  "  said  he.  '•'  I  will  go 
and  fetch  you  seats." 

"Not  the  least,"  said  Jim.  "Xo  time.  Much  rather 
stand.  This  is  business,  Mr.  Bellairs.  This  morning, 
as  you  know,  I  bought  the  wreck,  Flying  Scud." 

The  laAvyer  nodded. 

"  And  bought  her,"  pursued  my  friend,  "  at  a  figure 
out  of  all  proportion  to  the  cargo  and  the  circumstances, 
as  they  appeared  ?  " 

"  And  now  you  think  better  of  it,  and  would  like  to 
be  off  with  your  bargain  ?  I  have  been  figuring  upon 
this,"  returned  the  lawyer.  "  My  client,  I  will  not  hide 
from  you,  was  displeased  with  me  for  putting  her  so 
high.  I  think  we  were  both  too  heated,  Mr.  Pinkerton : 
rivalry  —  the  spirit  of  competition.  But  I  will  be  quite 
frank  —  I  know  when  I  am  dealing  with  gentlemen  — 
and  I  am  almost  certain,  if  you  leave  the  matter  in  my 
hands,  my  client  would  relieve  you  of  the  bargain,  so  as 
you  would  lose  "  —  he  consulted  our  faces  Avitli  gimlet- 
eyed  calculation  —  "  nothing,"  he  added  shrilly. 

And  here  Pinkerton  amazed  me. 

"That's  a  little  too  thin,"  said  he.  "I  have  the 
wreck.  I  know  there's  boodle  in  her,  and  I  mean  to 
keep  her.  What  I  want  is  some  points  which  may  save 
me  needless  expense,  and  which  I'm  prepared  to  pay  for. 


206  THE   WRECKER. 

money  down.  The  thing  for  you  to  consider  is  just  this : 
am  I  to  deal  with  you,  or  direct  with  your  principal? 
If  you  are  prepared  to  give  me  the  facts  right  off,  why, 
name  your  figure.  Only  one  thing ! "  added  Jim,  hold- 
ing a  finger  up,  "  when  I  say  '  money  down,'  I  mean  bills 
payable  when  the  ship  returns,  and  if  the  information 
proves  reliable.     I  don't  buy  pigs  in  pokes." 

I  had  seen  the  lawyer's  face  light  up  for  a  moment, 
and  then,  at  the  sound  of  Jim's  proviso,  miserably  fade. 
"I  guess  you  know  more  about  this  wreck  than  I  do, 
Mr.  Pinkerton,"  said  he.  "  I  only  know  that  I  was  told 
to  buy  the  thing,  and  tried,  and  couldn't." 

"What  I  like  about  you,  Mr.  Bellairs,  is  that  you 
waste  no  time,"  said  Jim.  "Now  then;  your  client's 
name  and  address." 

"On  consideration,"  replied  the  lawyer,  with  inde- 
scribable furtivity,  "I  cannot  see  that  I  am  entitled  to 
communicate  my  client's  name.  I  will  sound  him  for 
you  with  pleasure,  if  you  care  to  instruct  me;  but  I 
cannot  see  that  I  can  give  you  his  address." 

"  Very  well,"  said  Jim,  and  put  his  hat  on.  "  Kather 
a  strong  step,  isn't  it  ? "  (Between  every  sentence 
was  a  clear  pause.)  "ISTot  think  better  of  it?  Well, 
come  —  call  it  a  dollar ! " 

"  Mr.  Pinkerton,  sir !  "  exclaimed  the  offended  attor- 
ney; and  indeed,  I  myself  was  almost  afraid  that  Jim 
had  mistaken  his  man  and  gone  too  far. 

"  No  present  use  for  a  dollar  ?  "  says  Jim,     "  Well, 


IN  WHICH   THE   CREW  VANISH.  207 

look  here,  Mr.  Bellairs:  we're  both  busy  men,  and  I'll 
go  to  my  outside  figure  with  you  right  away  —  " 

"Stop  this,  Pinkerton,"  I  broke  in.  "I  know  the 
address :  924  Mission  Street." 

I  do  not  know  whether  Pinkerton  or  Bellairs  was  the 
more  taken  aback. 

"  Why  in  snakes  didn't  you  say  so,  Loudon  ?  "  cried 
my  friend. 

"  You  didn't  ask  for  it  before,"  said  I,  colouring  to  my 
temples  under  his  troubled  eyes. 

It  was  Bellairs  who  broke  silence,  kindly  supply- 
ing me  with  all  that  I  had  yet  to  learn.  "  Since  you 
know  Mr.  Dickson's  address,"  said  he,  plainly  burn- 
ing to  be  rid  of  us,  "I  suppose  I  need  detain  you  no 
longer." 

T  do  not  know  how  Pinkerton  felt,  but  I  had  death 
in  my  soul  as  we  came  down  the  outside  stair,  from 
the  den  of  this  blotched  spider.  My  whole  being  was 
strung,  waiting  for  Jim's  first  question,  and  prepared  to 
blurt  out,  I  believe,  almost  with  tears,  a  full  avowal. 
But  my  friend  asked  nothing. 

"  We  must  hack  it,"  said  he,  tearing  off  in  the  direc- 
tion of  the  nearest  stand.  "No  time  to  be  lost.  You 
saw  how  I  changed  ground.  No  use  in  paying  the 
shyster's  commission." 

Again  I  expected  a  reference  to  my  suppression ;  again 
I  was  disappointed.     It  was  plain  Jim  feared  the  sub- 


208  THE   WRECKER. 

ject,  and  I  felt  I  almost  hated  him  for  that  fear.  At 
last,  when  we  were  already  in  the  hack  and  driving 
towards  Mission  Street,  I  could  bear  my  suspense  no 
longer. 

"  You  do  not  ask  me  about  that  address,"  said  I. 

"  No,"  said  he,  quickly  and  timidly.  "  What  was  it  ? 
I  would  like  to  know." 

The  note  of  timidity  offended  me  like  a  buffet;  my 
temper  rose  as  hot  as  mustard.  ''I  must  request  you 
do  not  ask  me,"  said  I.  "  It  is  a  matter  I  cannot  ex- 
plain." 

The  moment  the  foolish  words  were  said,  that  moment 
I  would  have  given  worlds  to  recall  them :  how  much 
more,  when  Pinkerton,  patting  my  hand,  replied :  "  All 
right,  dear  boy ;  not  another  word ;  that's  all  done.  I'm 
convinced  it's  perfectly  right."  To  return  upon  the 
subject  was  beyond  my  courage ;  but  I  vowed  inwardly 
that  I  should  do  my  utmost  in  the  future  for  this  mad 
speculation,  and  that  I  would  cut  myself  in  pieces  before 
Jim  should  lose  one  dollar. 

We  had  no  sooner  arrived  at  the  address  than  I  had 
other  things  to  think  of. 

"  Mr.  Dickson  ?     He's  gone,"  said  the  landlady. 

Where  had  he  gone  ? 

"  I'm  sure  I  can't  tell  you,"  she  answered.  "  He  was 
quite  a  stranger  to  me." 

"  Did  he  express  his  baggage,  ma'am  ? ''  asked  Pin- 
kerton. 


IN   WHICH   THE  CREW   VANISH.  209 

"Hadn't  any,"  was  the  reply.  "He  came  last  night 
and  left  again  to-day  with  a  satchel." 

"  When  did  he  leave  ?  "  I  inquired. 

"It  was  about  noon,"  replied  the  landlady.  "Some 
one  rang  up  the  telephone,  and  asked  for  him;  and  I 
reckon  he  got  some  news,  for  he  left  right  away,  although 
his  rooms  were  taken  by  the  week.  He  seemed  consid- 
erable put  out :  I  reckon  it  was  a  death." 

My  heart  sank;  perhaps  my  idiotic  jest  had  indeed 
driven  him  away ;  and  again  I  asked  myself,  Why  ?  and 
whirled  for  a  moment  in  a  vortex  of  untenable  hy- 
potheses. 

"  What  was  he  like,  ma'am  ?  "  Pinkerton  was  asking, 
when  I  returned  to  consciousness  of  my  surroundings. 

"  A  clean  shaved  man,"  said  the  woman,  and  could  be 
led  or  driven  into  no  more  significant  description. 

"  Pull  up  at  the  nearest  drug-store,"  said  Pinkerton  to 
the  driver;  and  when  there,  the  telephone  was  put  in 
operation,  and  the  message  sped  to  the  Pacific  Mail 
Steamship  Company's  office  —  this  was  in  the  days  be- 
fore Spreckels  had  arisen  —  "  When  does  the  next  China 
steamer  touch  at  Honolulu  ?  " 

"The  City  of  Pekin  ;  she  cast  off  the  dock  to-day,  at 
half-past  one,"  came  the  reply. 

"  It's  a  clear  case  of  bolt,"  said  Jim.  "  He's  skipped, 
or  my  name's  not  Pinkerton.  He's  gone  to  head  us  off 
at  Midway  Island." 


210  THE   WRECKER. 

Somehow  I  was  not  so  sure ;  there  were  elements  in 
the  ease,  not  known  to  Pinkerton  —  the  fears  of  the  cap- 
tain, for  example  —  that  inclined  me  otherwise ;  and  the 
idea  that  I  had  terrified  Mr.  Dickson  into  flight,  though 
resting  on  so  slender  a  foundation,  clung  obstinately  in 
my  mind.  "  Shouldn't  we  see  the  list  of  passengers  ?  " 
I  asked. 

"Dickson  is  such  a  blamed  common  name,"  returned 
Jim;  "and  then,  as  like  as  not,  he  would  change  it." 

At  this  I  had  another  intuition.  A  negative  of  a 
street  scene,  taken  unconsciously  when  I  was  absorbed 
in  other  thoughts,  rose  in  my  memory  with  not  a  feature 
blurred :  a  view,  from  Bellairs's  door  as  we  were  coming 
down,  of  muddy  roadway,  passing  drays,  matted  tele- 
graph wires,  a  Chinaboy  with  a  basket  on  his  head,  and 
(almost  opposite)  a  corner  grocery  with  the  name  of 
Dickson  in  great  gilt  letters. 

"Yes,"  said  I,  "you  are  right;  he  would  change  it. 
And  anyway,  I  don't  believe  it  was  his  name  at  all ;  I 
believe  he  took  it  from  a  corner  grocery  beside  Bel- 
lairs's." 

"As  like  as  not,"  said  Jim,  still  standing  on  the  side- 
walk with  contracted  brows. 

"  Well,  what  shall  we  do  next  ?  "  I  asked. 

"The  natural  thing  would  be  to  rush  the  schooner,", 
he  replied.  "  But  I  don't  know.  I  telephoned  the  cap- 
tain to  go  at  it  head  down  and  heels  in  air ;  he  answered 
like  a  little  man;  and  I  guess  he's  getting  around.     I 


IN   WHICH   THE   CREW   VANISH.  211 

believe,  Loudon,  we'll  give  Trent  a  chance.  Trent  was 
in  it ;  lie  was  in  it  up  to  the  neck ;  even  if  he  couldn't 
buy,  he  could  give  us  the  straight  tip." 

"  I  think  so  too,"  said  I.  "  Where  shall  we  find 
him  ?  " 

"  British  consulate  of  course,"  said  Jim.  'i  And  that's 
another  reason  for  taking  him  first.  We  can  hustle  that 
schooner  up  all  evening ;  but  when  the  consulate's  shut, 
it's  shut." 

At  the  consulate,  we  learned  that  Captain  Trent  had 
alighted  (such  is  I  believe  the  classic  phrase)  at  the 
What  Cheer  House.  To  that  large  and  unaristocratic 
hostelry  we  drove,  and  addressed  ourselves  to  a  large 
clerk,  who  was  chewing  a  toothpick  and  looking  straight 
before  him. 

"  Captain  Jacob  Trent  ?  " 

"  Gone,"  said  the  clerk. 

"  Where  has  he  gone  ?  "  asked  Pinkerton. 

"Cain't  say,"  said  the  clerk. 

"When  did  he  go  ?  "  I  asked. 

"  Don't  know,"  said  the  clerk,  and  with  the  simplicity 
of  a  monarch  offered  us  the  spectacle  of  his  broad  back. 

What  might  have  happened  next  I  dread  to  picture, 
for  Pinkerton's  excitement  had  been  growing  steadily, 
and  now  burned  dangerously  high ;  but  we  were  spared 
extremities  by  the  intervention  of  a  second  clerk. 

"  Why  !  Mr.  Dodd  ! "  he  exclaimed,  running  forward  to 
the  counter.  "  Glad  to  see  you,  sir !  Can  I  do  anything 
in  your  way  ?  " 


212  THE   WRECKER. 

How  virtuous  actions  blossom !  Here  was  a  young 
man  to  whose  pleased  ears  I  had  rehearsed  Just  before  the 
battle,  mother,  at  some  weekly  picnic;  and  now,  in  that 
tense  moment  of  my  life,  he  came  (from  the  machine) 
to  be  my  helper. 

"  Captain  Trent  of  the  wreck  ?  0  yes,  Mr.  Dodd ;  he 
left  about  twelve ;  he  and  another  of  the  men.  The 
Kanaka  went  earlier  by  the  City  of  Pekin ;  I  know  that ; 
I  remember  expressing  his  chest.  Captain  Trent's  ? 
I'll  inquire,  Mr.  Dodd.  Yes,  they  were  all  here.  Here 
are  the  names  on  the  register ;  perhaps  you  would  care 
to  look  at  them  while  I  go  and  see  about  the  baggage  ?  " 

I  drew  the  book  toward  me,  and  stood  looking  at  the 
four  names  all  written  in  the  same  hand,  rather  a  big 
and  rather  a  bad  one :  Trent,  Brown,  Hardy,  and  (instead 
of  Ah  Sing)  Jos.  Amalu. 

'' Pinkerton,"  said  I,  suddenly,  "have  you  that  Occi- 
dental in  your  pocket  ?  " 

"  Never  left  me,"  said  Pinkerton,  producing  the  paper. 

I  turned  to  the  account  of  the  wreck.  "Here,"  said 
I ;  "  here's  the  name.  *  Elias  Goddedaal,  mate.'  Why 
do  we  never  come  across  Elias  Goddedaal  ?  " 

"That's  so,"  said  Jim.  "Was  he  with  the  rest  in 
that  saloon  when  you  saw  them  ?  " 

"  I  don't  believe  it,"  said  I.  "  They  were  only  four, 
and  there  was  none  that  behaved  like  a  mate." 

At  this  moment  the  clerk  returned  with  his  report. 

"  The  captain,"  it  appeared,  "  came  with  some  kind  of 


IN   WHICH   THE   CREW    VANISH.  213 

an  express  waggon,  and  he  and  the  man  took  off  three 
chests  and  a  big  satcheL  Our  porter  helped  to  put  them 
on,  but  they  drove  the  cart  themselves.  The  porter 
thinks  they  went  down  town.     It  was  about  one." 

"Still  in  time  for  the  City x)f  Pekin,^^  observed  Jim. 

"  How  many  of  them  were  here  ?  "  I  inquired. 

"Three,  sir,  and  the  Kanaka,"  replied  the  clerk.  "I 
can't  somehow  find  out  about  the  third,  but  he's  gone 
too." 

"  Mr.  Goddedaal,  the  mate,  wasn't  here  then  ? "  I 
asked. 

"No,  Mr.  Dodd,  none  but  what  you  see,"  says  the 
clerk. 

"  Nor  you  never  heard  where  he  was  ?  " 

"No.  Any  particular  reason  for  finding  these  men, 
Mr.  Dodd  ?  "  inquired  the  clerk. 

"This  gentleman  and  I  have  bought  the  wreck,"  I 
explained ;  "  we  wished  to  get  some  information,  and  it 
is  very  annoying  to  find  the  men  all  gone." 

A  certain  group  had  gradually  formed  about  us,  for 
the  wreck  was  still  a  matter  of  interest ;  and  at  this, 
one  of  the  bystanders,  a  rough  seafaring  man,  spoke 
suddenly. 

"I  guess  the  mate  won't  be  gone,"  said  he.  "He's 
main  sick;  never  left  the  sick-bay  aboard  the  Tempest; 
so  they  tell  me." 

Jim  took  me  by  the  sleeve.  "  Back  to  the  consulate," 
said  he. 


214  THE   WRECKER. 

But  even  at  the  consulate  nothing  was  known  of 
Mr.  Goddedaal.  The  doctor  of  the  Tempest  had  certified 
him  very  sick;  he  had  sent  his  papers  in,  but  never 
appeared  in  person  before  the  authorities. 

"  Have  you  a  telephone  laid  on  to  the  Tempest  7 " 
asked  Pinkerton. 

"  Laid  on  yesterday,"  said  the  clerk. 

"Do  you  mind  asking,  or  letting  me  ask?  We  are 
very  anxious  to  get  hold  of  Mr,  Goddedaal." 

"All  right,"  said  the  clerk,  and  turned  to  the  tele- 
phone. "  I'm  sorry,"  he  said  presently,  "  Mr.  Goddedaal 
has  left  the  ship,  and  no  one  knows  where  he  is." 

"  Do  you  pay  the  men's  passage  home  ?  "  I  inquired,  a 
sudden  thought  striking  me. 

"If  they  want  it,"  said  the  clerk;  "sometimes  they 
don't.  But  we  paid  the  Kanaka's  passage  to  Honolulu 
this  morning;  and  by  what  Captain  Trent  was  saying, 
I  understand  the  rest  are  going  home  together." 

"  Then  you  haven't  paid  them  ?  "  said  I. 

"  Kot  yet,"  said  the  clerk. 

"  And  you  would  be  a  good  deal  surprised,  if  I  were 
to  tell  you  they  were  gone  already  ?  "  I  asked, 

"  0,  I  should  think  you  were  mistaken,"  said  he. 

"  Such  is  the  fact,  however,"  said  I, 

"  I  am  sure  you  must  be  mistaken,"  he  repeated. 

"  May  I  use  your  telephone  one  moment  ? "  asked 
Pinkerton  ;  and  as  soon  as  permission  had  been  granted, 
I  heard  him  ring  up  the  printing-office  where  our  adver- 


IN  WHICH   THE  CREW   VANISH.  215 

tisements  were  usually  handled.  More  I  did  not  hear; 
for  suddenly  recalling  the  big,  bad  hand  in  the  reg- 
ister of  the  What  Cheer  House,  I  asked  the  consulate 
clerk  if  he  had  a  specimen  of  Captain  Trent's  Avriting. 
Whereupon  I  learned  that  the  captain  could  not  write, 
having  cut  his  hand  open  a  little  before  the  loss  of  the 
brig;  that  the  latter  part  of  the  log  even  had  been 
written  up  by  Mr.  Goddedaal,  and  that  Trent  had  always 
signed  with  his  left  hand.  By  the  time  I  had  gleaned 
this  information,  Pinkerton  was  ready. 

"That's  all  that  we  can  do.  Now  for  the  schooner," 
said  he ;  "  and  by  to-morrow  evening  I  lay  hands  on 
Goddedaal,  or  my  name's  not  Pinkerton." 

"  How  have  you  managed  ?  "  I  inquired. 

"You'll  see  before  you  get  to  bed,"  said  Pinkerton, 
"And  now,  after  all  this  backwarding  and  forwarding, 
and  that  hotel  clerk,  and  that  bug  Bellairs,  it'll  be  a 
change  and  a  kind  of  consolation  to  see  the  schooner.  I 
guess  things  are  humming  there." 

But  on  the  wharf,  when  we  reached  it,  there  was  no 
sign  of  bustle,  and  but  for  the  galley  smoke,  no  mark  of 
life  on  the  Norali  Creina.  Pinkerton's  face  grew  pale, 
and  his  mouth  straightened,  as  he  leaped  on  board. 

"  Where's  the  captain  of  this  —  ? "  and  he  left  the 
phrase  unfinished,  finding  no  epithet  sufficiently  ener- 
getic for  his  thoughts. 

It  did  not  appear  whom  or  what  he  was  addressing; 
but  a  head,  presumably  the  cook's,  appeared  in  answer 
at  the  galley  door. 


216  THE   ^YRECKER. 

"  In  the  cabin,  at  dinner,"  said  the  cook  deliberately, 
chewing  as  he  spoke. 

"  Is  that  cargo  out  ?  " 

"No,  sir." 

"  None  of  it  ?  " 

"  0,  there's  some  of  it  out.  We'll  get  at  the  rest  of 
it  livelier  to-morrow,  I  guess." 

"  I  guess  there'll  be  something  broken  first,"  said 
Pinkerton,  and  strode  to  the  cabin. 

Here  we  found  a  man,  fat,  dark,  and  quiet,  seated 
gravely  at  what  seemed  a  liberal  meal.  He  looked  up, 
upon  our  entrance ;  and  seeing  Pinkerton  continue  to 
stand  facing  him  in  silence,  hat  on  head,  arms  folded, 
and  lips  compressed,  an  expression  of  mingled  wonder 
and  annoyance  began  to  dawn  upon  his  placid  face. 

"  Well ! "  said  Jim.  "  And  so  this  is  what  you  call 
rushing  around  ?  " 

"  Who  are  you  ? "   cries  the  captain. 

"  Me !  I'm  Pinkerton ! "  retorted  Jim,  as  though  the 
name  had  been  a  talisman. 

"You're  not  very  civil,  whoever  you  are,"  was  the 
reply.  But  still  a  certain  effect  had  been  produced,  for 
ho  scrambled  to  his  feet,  and  added  hastily,  "A  man 
must  have  a  bit  of  dinner,  you  know,  Mr.  Pinkerton." 

"  Where's  your  mate  ?  "    snapped  Jim. 

"  He's  up  town,"  returned  the  other. 

"Up  town!"  sneered  Pinkerton.  "Now  I'll  tell  you 
what  you  are :  you're  a  Fraud ;  and  if  I  wasn't  afraid 


IN    WHICH   THE   CREW    VANISH.  217 

of  dirtying  my  boot,  I  would  kick  3-ou  and  your  dinner 
into  that  dock." 

"I'll  tell  you  something,  too,"  retorted  the  captain, 
duskily  flushing.  "I  wouldn't  sail  this  ship  for  the  man 
you  are,  if  you  went  upon  your  knees.  I've  dealt  with 
gentlemen  up  to  now." 

"  I  can  tell  you  the  names  of  a  number  of  gentlemen 
you'll  never  deal  with  any  more,  and  that's  the  whole  of 
Longhurst's  gang,"  said  Jim.  ''I'll  put  your  pipe  out 
in  that  quarter,  my  friend.  Here,  rout  out  your  traps 
as  quick  as  look  at  it,  and  take  your  vermin  along  with 
you.  I'll  have  a  captain  in,  this  very  night,  that's  a 
sailor,  and  some  sailors  to  work  for  him." 

"  I'll  go  when  I  please,  and  that's  to-morrow  morning," 
cried  the  captain  after  us,  as  we  departed  for  the  shore. 

"There's  something  gone  wrong  with  the  world  to- 
day ;  it  must  have  come  bottom  up ! "  wailed  Pinkerton. 
"  Bellairs,  and  then  the  hotel  clerk,  and  now  This  Fraud ! 
And  what  am  I  to  do  for  a  captain,  Loudon,  with  Long- 
hurst  gone  home  an  hour  ago,  and  the  boys  all  scat- 
tered ?  " 

"  I  know,"  said  I.  "  Jump  in ! "  And  then  to  the 
driver :    "  Do  you  know  Black  Tom's  ?  " 

Thither  then  we  rattled ;  passed  through  the  bar,  and 
found  (as  I  had  hoped)  Johnson  in  the  enjo3'ment  .of 
club  life.  The  table  had  been  thrust  upon  one  side ; 
a  South  Sea  merchant  was  discoursing  music  from  a 
mouth-organ  in  one  corner;    and  in  the  middle  of  the 


218  THE   WRECKER. 

floor  Jolinson  and  a  fellow-seaman,  their  arms  clasped 
about  each  other's  bodies,  somewhat  heavily  danced. 
The  room  was  both  cold  and  close ;  a  jet  of  gas,  which 
continually  menaced  the  heads  of  the  performers,  shed 
a  coarse  illumination;  the  mouth-organ  sounded  shrill 
and  dismal ;  and  the  faces  of  all  concerned  were  church- 
like in  their  gravity.  It  were,  of  course,  indelicate  to 
interrupt  these  solemn  frolics ;  so  we  edged  ourselves  to 
chairs,  for  all  the  world  like  belated  comers  in  a  concert- 
room,  and  patiently  waited  for  the  end.  At  length  the 
organist,  having  exhausted  his  supply  of  breath,  ceased 
abruptly  in  the  middle  of  a  bar.  With  the  cessation  of 
the  strain,  the  dancers  likewise  came  to  a  full  stop, 
swayed  a  moment,  still  embracing,  and  then  separated 
and  looked  about  the  circle  for  applause. 

"  Very  well  danced ! "  said  one ;  but  it  appears  the 
compliment  was  not  strong  enough  for  the  performers, 
who  (forgetful  of  the  proverb)  took  up  the  tale  in 
person. 

"Well!"  said  Johnson.  "I  mayn't  be  no  sailor,  but 
I  can  dance !  " 

And  his  late  partner,  with  an  almost  pathetic  convic- 
tion, added,  "  My  foot  is  as  light  as  a  feather." 

Seeing  how  the  wind  set,  you  may  be  sure  I  added  a 
few  words  of  praise  before  I  carried  Johnson  alone  into 
the  passage :  to  whom,  thus  mollified,  I  told  so  much  as 
I  judged  needful  of  our  situation,  and  begged  him,  if  he 
would  not  take  the  job  himself,  to  find  me  a  smart  man. 


IN   WHICH    THE   CREW   VANISH.  219 

"Me!"  lie  cried.  "I  couldn't  no  more  do  it  than  I 
could  try  to  go  to  liell ! " 

"  I  thought  you  were  a  mate,"  said  I. 

"  So  I  am  a  mate,"  giggled  Johnson,  "  and  you  don't 
catch  me  shipping  noways  else.  But  I'll  tell  you  what, 
I  believe  I  can  get  you  Arty  Nares:  you  seen  Artyj 
first-rate  navigator  and  a  son  of  a  gun  for  style."  And 
he  proceeded  to  explain  to  me  that  Mr.  ISTares,  who 
had  the  promise  of  a  fine  barque  in  six  months,  after 
things  had  quieted  down,  was  in  the  meantime  living 
very  private,  and  would  be  pleased  to  have  a  change 
of  air. 

I  called  oiit  Pinkerton  and  told  him.  "  Nares ! "  he 
cried,  as  soon  as  I  had  come  to  the  name.  "  I  would  jump 
at  the  chance  of  a  man  that  had  had  JSTares's  trousers 
on !  Why,  Loudon,  he's  the  smartest  deep-water  mate 
out  of  San  Francisco,  and  draws  his  dividends  regular  in 
service  and  out."  This  hearty  indorsation  clinched  the 
proposal ;  Johnson  agreed  to  produce  Nares  before  six 
the  following  morning;  and  Black  Tom,  being  called 
into  the  consultation,  promised  us  four  smart  hands  for 
the  same  hour,  and  even  (what  appeared  to  all  of  us  ex- 
cessive) promised  them  sober. 

The  streets  were  fully  lighted  when  we  left  Black 
Tom's :  street  after  street  sparkling  with  gas  or  elec- 
tricity, line  after  line  of  distant  luminaries  climbing  the 
steep  sides  of  hills  towards  the  overvaulting  darkness ; 
and  on  the  other  hand,  where  the  waters  of  the  bay 


220  THE   WRECKER. 

invisibly  trembled,  a  hundred  riding  lanterns  marked 
the  position  of  a  hundred  ships.  The  sea-fog  flew  high 
in  heaven;  and  at  the  level  of  man's  life  and  business 
it  was  clear  and  chill.  By  silent  consent,  we  paid  the 
hack  off,  and  proceeded  arm  in  arm  towards  the  Poodle 
Dog  for  dinner. 

At  one  of  the  first  hoardings,  I  was  aware  of  a  bill- 
sticker  at  Avork :  it  was  a  late  hour  for  this  employment, 
and  I  checked  Pinkerton  until  the  sheet  should  be  un- 
folded.    This  is  what  I  read:  — 

TWO  HUNDRED  DOLLARS  REWARD. 

OFFICERS   AND    MEN    OF  THE 

WRECKED    BRIG    FLYING    SCUD 

APPLYING. 

PERSONALLY  OR    BY    LETTER, 

AT  THE  OFFICE   OF  JAMES    PINKERTON,    MONTANA    BLOCK, 

BEFORE    NOON    TO-MORROW,   TUESDAY,   12TH, 

WILL    RECEIVE 

TWO  HUNDRED   DOLLARS  REWARD. 

"  This  is  your  idea,  Pinkerton ! "  I  cried. 

"Yes.  They've  lost  no  time;  I'll  say  that  for  them 
—  not  like  the  Fraud,"  said  he.  "But  mind  you,  Lou- 
don, that's  not  half  of  it.  The  cream  of  the  idea's  here : 
we  know  our  man's  sick ;  well,  a  copy  of  that  has  been 


IN   WHICH  THE  CREW   VANISH.  221 

mailed  to  every  hospital,  every  doctor,  and  every  drug- 
store in  San  Francisco." 

Of  course,  from  the  nature  of  our  business,  Pinkerton 
could  do  a  thing  of  the  kind  at  a  figure  extremely  re- 
duced ;  for  all  that,  I  was  appalled  at  the  extravagance, 
and  said  so. 

"  What  matter  a  few  dollars  now  ?  "  he  replied  sadly. 
"  It's  in  three  months  that  the  pull  comes,  Loudon." 

We  walked  on  again  in  silence,  not  without  a  shiver. 
Even  at  the  Poodle  Dog,  we  took  our  food  with  small 
appetite  and  less  speech ;  and  it  was  not  until  he  was 
warmed  with  a  third  glass  of  champagne  that  Pinkerton 
cleared  his  throat  and  looked  upon  me  with  a  depre- 
cating eye. 

"Loudon,"  said  he,  "there  was  a  subject  you  didn't 
wish  to  be  referred  to.  I  only  want  to  do  so  indirectly. 
It  wasn't" — he  faltered —  "it  wasn't  because  you  were 
dissatisfied  with  me  ?  "  he  concluded,  with  a  quaver. 

"  Pinkerton  ! "  cried  I. 

"ISTo,  no,  not  a  word  just  now,"  he  hastened  to  proceed. 
"Let  me  speak  first.  I  appreciate,  though  I  can't  imi- 
tate, the  delicacy  of  your  nature ;  and  I  can  well  under- 
stand you  would  rather  die  than  speak  oi  it,  and  yet 
might  feel  disappointed.  I  did  think  I  could  have  done 
better  myself.  But  when  I  found  how  tight  money  was 
in  this  city,  and  a  man  like  Douglas  B.  Longhurst  —  a 
forty-niner,  the  man  that  stood  at  bay  in  a  corn  patch 
for  five  hours  against  the  San  Diablo  squatters  —  weak- 


222  THE   WKECKER. 

ening  on  the  operation,  I  tell  you,  Loudon,  I  began  to 
despair ;  and  —  I  may  have  made  mistakes,  no  doubt 
there  are  thousands  who  could  have  done  better  —  but  I 
give  you  a  loyal  hand  on  it,  I  did  my  best." 

"  My  poor  Jim,"  said  I,  "  as  if  I  ever  doubted  you !  as 
if  I  didn't  know  you  had  done  wonders !  All  day  I've 
been  admiring  your  energy  and  resource.  And  as  for 
that  affair  —  " 

"  No,  Loudon,  no  more,  not  a  word  more  !  I  don't 
want  to  hear,"  cried  Jim. 

"Well,  to  tell  you  the  truth,  I  don't  want  to  tell  you," 
Baid  I ;  "  for  it's  a  thing  I'm  ashamed  of." 

"  Ashamed,  Loudon  ?  0,  don't  say  that ;  don't  use 
,»uch  an  expression  even  in  jest ! "  protested  Pinkerton. 

"  Do  you  never  do  anything  you're  ashamed  of  ?  "  I 
iiiquired. 

"  No,"  says  he,  rolling  his  eyes.  "  Why  ?  I'm  some- 
times sorry  afterwards,  when  it  pans  out  different  from 
what  I  figured.  But  I  can't  see  what  I  would  want 
to  be  ashamed  for." 

I  sat  awhile  considering  with  admiration  the  sim- 
plicity of  my  friend's  character.  Then  I  sighed.  "  Do 
you  know,  Jim,  what  I'm  sorriest  for?"  said  I.  "At 
this  rate,  I  can't  be  best  man  at  your  marriage." 

"  My  marriage  ! "  he  repeated,  echoing  the  sigh.  "  No 
marriage  for  me  now.  I'm  going  right  down  to-night  to 
break  it  to  her.  I  think  that's  what's  shaken  me  all 
day.  I  feel  as  if  I  had  had  no  right  (after  I  was  en- 
gaged) to  operate  so  widely." 


IN   WHICH   THE   CREW   VANISH.  223 

"  Well,  you  know,  Jim,  it  was  my  doing,  and  you  must 
lay  the  blame  on  me,"  said  I. 

"  Not  a  cent  of  it ! "  he  cried.  "  I  was  as  eager  as 
yourself,  only  not  so  bright  at  the  beginning.  No ;  I've 
myself  to  thank  for  it ;  but  it's  a  wrench." 

While  Jim  departed  on  his  dolorous  mission,  I  re- 
turned alone  to  the  office,  lit  the  gas,  and  sat  down  to 
reflect  on  the  events  of  that  momentous  day :  on  the 
strange  features  of  the  tale  that  had  been  so  far  un- 
folded, the  disappearances,  the  terrors,  the  great  sums  of 
money ;  and  on  the  dangerous  and  ungrateful  task  that 
awaited  me  in  the  immediate  future. 

It  is  difficult,  in  the  retrospect  of  such  affairs,  to  avoid 
attributing  to  ourselves  in  the  past  a  measure  of  the 
knowledge  we  possess  to-day.  But  I  may  say,  and  yet 
be  well  within  the  mark,  that  I  was  consumed  that  night 
with  a  fever  of  suspicion  and  curiosity ;  exhausted  my 
fancy  in  solutions,  which  I  still  dismissed  as  incommen- 
surable with  the  facts  ;  and  in  the  mystery  by  which  I 
saw  myself  surrounded,  found  a  precious  stimulus  for 
my  courage  and  a  convenient  soothing  draught  for  con- 
science. Even  had  all  been  plain  sailing,  I  do  not  hint 
that  I  should  have  drawn  back.  Smuggling  is  one  of 
the  meanest  of  crimes,  for  by  that  we  rob  a  whole  coun- 
try x>ro  rata,  and  are  therefore  certain  to  impoverish  the 
poor :  to  smuggle  opium  is  an  offence  particularly  dark, 
since  it  stands  related  not  so  much  to  murder,  as  to 
massacre.     Upon  all  these  points  I  was  quite  clear ;  my 


224  THE   WEECKER. 

sympathy  was  all  in  arms  against  my  interest ;  and  had 
not  Jim  been  involved,  I  could  have  dwelt  almost  with 
satisfaction  on  the  idea  of  my  failure.  But  Jim,  his 
whole  fortune,  and  his  marriage,  depended  upon  my  suc- 
cess ;  and  I  preferred  the  interests  of  my  friend  before 
those  of  all  the  islanders  in  the  South  Seas.  This  is  a 
poor,  private  morality,  if  you  like ;  but  it  is  mine, 
and  the  best  I  have ;  and  I  am  not  half  so  much 
ashamed  of  having  embarked  at  all  on  this  adventure, 
as  I  am  proud  that  (while  I  was  in  it,  and  for  the  sake 
of  my  friend)  I  was  up  early  and  down  late,  set  my  own 
hand  to  everything,  took  dangers  as  they  came,  and  for 
once  in  my  life  played  the  man  throughout.  At  the 
same  time,  I  could  have  desired  another  field  of  energy ; 
and  I  was  the  more  grateful  for  the  redeeming  element  of 
mystery.  Without  that,  though  I  might  have  gone  ahead 
and  done  as  well,  it  would  scarce  have  been  with  ardour ; 
and  what  inspired  me  that  night  with  an  impatient 
greed  of  the  sea,  the  island,  and  the  wreck,  was  the  hope 
that  I  might  stumble  there  upon  the  answer  to  a  hun- 
dred questions,  and  learn  why  Captain  Trent  fanned  his 
red  face  in  the  exchange,  and  why  Mr.  Dickson  fled  from 
the  telephone  in  the  Mission  Street  lodging-house. 


JIM   AND   I   TAKE   DIFFERENT    WAYS.  225 


CHAPTER  XI. 

IN    "WHICH    JIM    AND    I    TAKE    DIFFERENT    "WATS. 

I  "was  unhappy  "when  I  closed  my  eyes ;  and  it  was  to 
unhappiness  that  I  opened  them  again  next  morning,  to 
a  confused  sense  of  some  calamity  still  inarticulate,  and 
to  the  consciousness  of  jaded  limbs  and  of  a  swimming 
head.  I  must  have  lain  for  some  time  inert  and  stupidly 
miserable,  before  I  became  aware  of  a  reiterated  knock- 
ing at  the  door;  with  which  discovery  all  my  "^vits  flo'wed 
back  in  their  accustomed  channels,  and  I  remembered 
the  sale,  and  the  wreck,  and  Goddedaal,  and  Xares,  and 
Johnson,  and  Black  Tom,  and  the  troubles  of  yesterday, 
and  the  manifold  engagements  of  the  day  that  was  to 
come.  The  thought  thrilled  me  like  a  trumpet  in  the 
hour  of  battle.  In  a  moment,  I  had  leaped  from  bed, 
crossed  the  office  where  Pinkerton  lay  in  a  deep  trance 
of  sleep  on  the  convertible  sofa,  and  stood  in  the  door- 
"way,  in  my  night  gear,  to  receive  our  visitors. 

Johnson  was  first,  by  way  of  usher,  smiling.  From  a 
little  behind,  "with  his  Sunday  hat  tilted  for"o^ard  over 
his  brow,  and  a  cigar  glowing  between  his  lips,  Captain 
Nares  acknowledged  our  previous  acquaintance  "with  a 
succinct  nod.  Behind  him  again,  in  the  top  of  the 
stairway,  a  knot  of  sailors,  the  new  crew  of  the  No7'ah 
Creina,  stood  polishing  the  "wall  with  back  and  elbo"W. 


226  THE   WRECKER. 

These  I  left  without,  to  their  reflections.  But  our  two 
officers  I  carried  at  once  into  the  office,  where  (taking 
Jim  by  the  shoulder)  I  shook  him  slowly  into  conscious- 
ness. He  sat  up,  all  abroad  for  the  moment,  and  stared 
on  the  new  captain. 

"  Jim,"  said  I,  "  this  is  Captain  Nares.  Captain,  Mr. 
Pinkerton." 

Nares  repeated  his  curt  nod,  still  without  speech  ;  and 
I  thought  he  held  us  both  under  a  watchful  scrutiny. 

"  0 ! "  says  Jim,  "  this  is  Captain  Nares,  is  it  ? 
Good  morning,  Captain  Nares.  Happy  to  have  the  pleas- 
ure of  your  acquaintance,  sir.  I  know  you  well  by 
reputation." 

Perhaps,  under  the  circumstances  of  the  moment,  this 
was  scarce  a  welcome  speech.  At  least,  Nares  received 
it  with  a  grunt. 

"Well,  Captain,"  Jim  continued,  "you  know  about 
the  size  of  the  business  ?  You're  to  take  the  Nora 
Creina  to  Midway  Island,  break  up  a  wreck,  call  at 
HonoliLlu,  and  back  to  this  port  ?  I  suppose  that's 
understood  ?  " 

"Well,"  returned  Nares,  with  the  same  unamiable 
reserve,  "for  a  reason,  which  I  guess  you  know,  the 
cruise  may  suit  me ;  but  there's  a  point  or  two  to  settle. 
We  shall  have  to  talk,  Mr.  Pinkerton.  But  whether  I 
go  or  not,  somebody  will ;  there's  no  sense  in  losing 
time ;  and  you  might  give  Mr.  Johnson  a  note,  let  him 
take   the  hands  right   down,  and  set  to  to  overhaul   the 


JIM  A^D   I   TAKE   DIFFERENT   WAYS.  227 

rigging.  The  beasts  look  sober,"  he  added,  with  an  air 
of  great  disgust,  "and  need  putting  to  work  to  keep 
them  so." 

This  being  agreed  upon,  Nares  watched  his  subordinate 
depart  and  drew  a  visible  breath. 

"  And  now  we're  alone  and  can  talk,"  said  he. 
"  What's  this  thing  about  ?  It's  been  advertised  like 
Barnum's  museum ;  that  poster  of  yours  has  set  the  Front 
talking;  that's  an  objection  in  itself,  for  I'm  laying  a 
little  dark  just  now ;  and  anyway,  before  I  take  the  ship, 
I  require  to  know  what  I'm  going  after." 

Thereupon  Pinkerton  gave  him  the  whole  tale,  be- 
ginning with  a  businesslike  precision,  and  working  him- 
self up,  as  we  went  on,  to  the  boiling-point  of  narrative 
enthusiasm.  Nares  sat  and  smoked,  hat  still  on  head, 
and  acknowledged  each  fresh  feature  of  the  story  with  a 
frowning  nod.  But  his  pale  blue  eyes  betrayed  him,  and 
lighted  visibly. 

"Now  you  see  for  yourself,"  Pinkerton  concluded: 
"there's  every  last  chance  that  Trent  has  skipped  to 
Honolulu,  and  it  won't  take  much  of  that  fifty  thousand 
dollars  to  charter  a  smart  schooner  down  to  Midway. 
Here's  where  I  want  a  man  ! "  cried  Jim,  with  contagious 
energy.  "That  wreck's  mine;  I've  paid  for  it,  money 
down ;  and  if  it's  got  to  be  fought  for,  I  want  to  see  it 
fought  for  lively.  If  you're  not  back  in  ninety  days,  I 
tell  you  plainly,  I'll  make  one  of  the  biggest  busts  ever 
Been  upon  this  coast ;  it's  life  or  death  for  Mr.  Dodd  and 


228  THE   WRECKER. 

me.  As  like  as  not,  it'll  come  to  grapples  on  the  island ; 
and  when  I  heard  your  name  last  night  —  and  a  blame' 
sight  more  this  morning  when  I  saw  the  eye  you've 
got  in  your  head  —  I  said,  '  Xares  is  good  enough  for 
me ! ' " 

"I  guess,"  observed  Nares,  studying  the  ash  of  his 
cigar,  "the  sooner  I  get  that  schooner  outside  the  Farall- 
ones,  the  better  you'll  be  pleased." 

"  You're  the  man  I  dreamed  of ! "  cried  Jim,  bouncing 
on  the  bed.  "There's  not  five  per  cent  of  fraud  in  all 
your  carcase." 

"Just  hold  on,"  said  Nares.  "There's  another  point. 
I  heard  some  talk  about  a  supercargo." 

"  That's  Mr.  Dodd,  here,  my  partner,"  replied  Jim. 

"I  don't  see  it,"  returned  the  captain,  dryly.  "One 
captain's  enough  for  any  ship  that  ever  I  was  aboard." 

"Now,  don't  you  start  disappointing  me,"  said  Pinker- 
ton  ;  "  for  you're  talking  without  thought.  I'm  not 
going  to  give  you  the  run  of  the  books  of  this  firm,  am 
I  ?  I  guess  not.  Well,  this  is  not  only  a  cruise ;  it's 
a  business  operation;  and  that's  in  the  hands  of  my 
partner.  You  sail  that  ship,  you  see  to  breaking  up 
that  wreck  and  keeping  the  men  upon  the  jump,  and 
you'll  find  your  hands  about  full.  Only,  no  mistake 
about  one  thing :  it  has  to  be  done  to  Mr.  Dodd's  satis- 
faction ;  for  it's  Mr.  Dodd  that's  paying." 

"  I'm  accustomed  to  give  satisfaction,"  said  Mr.  Nares, 
with  a  dark  flush. 


JIM   AND   I   TAKE   DIFFERENT   "WAYS.  229 

"  And  so  you  will  here  !  "  cried  Pinkerton.  "  I  under- 
stand you.  You're  prickly  to  handle,  but  you're  straight 
all  through." 

"The  position's  got  to  be  understood,  though,"  re- 
turned Nares,  perhaps  a  trifle  mollified.  "  My  position, 
I  mean.  I'm  not  going  to  ship  sailing-master;  it's 
enough  out  of  my  way  already,  to  set  a  foot  on  this 
mosquito  schooner." 

"Well,  I'll  tell  you,"  retorted  Jim,  with  an  indescriba- 
ble twinkle :  '■'  you  just  meet  me  on  the  ballast,  and 
we'll  make  it  a  barquentine." 

Nares  laughed  a  little;  tactless  Pinkerton  had  once 
more  gained  a  victory  in  tact.  "Then  there's  another 
point,"  resumed  the  captain,  tacitly  relinquishing  the 
last.     "  How  about  the  owners  ?  " 

"  0,  you  leave  that  to  me  ;  I'm  one  of  Longhurst's 
crowd,  you  know,"  said  Jim,  with  sudden  bristling 
vanity.  "  Any  man  that's  good  enough  for  me,  is  good 
enough  for  them." 

"  Who  are  they  ?  "  asked  Nares. 

"  M'Intyre  and  Spittal,"  said  Jim. 

"  0,  well,  give  me  a  card  of  yours,"  said  the  captain : 
"  you  needn't  bother  to  write ;  I  keep  M'Intyre  and 
Spittal  in  my  vest-pocket." 

Boast  for  boast ;  it  was  always  thus  with  Nares  and 
Pinkerton  —  the  two  vainest  men  of  my  acquaintance. 
And  having  thus  reinstated  himself  in  his  own  opinion, 
the  captain  rose,  and,  with  a  couple  of  his  stiff  nods, 
departed. 


230  THE   WRECKER. 

"  Jim,"  I  cried,  as  the  door  closed  beliind  him,  "  I 
don't  like  that  man." 

"  You've  just  got  to,  Loudon,"  returned  Jim.  "  He's 
a  typical  American  seaman  —  brave  as  a  lion,  full  of  re- 
source, and  stands  high  with  his  owners.  He's  a  man 
with  a  record." 

"For  brutality  at  sea,"  said  I. 

"  Say  what  you  like,"  exclaimed  Pinkerton,  "  it  was  a 
good  hour  we  got  him  in :  I'd  trust  Mamie's  life  to  him 
to-morrow." 

"  Well,  and  talking  of  Mamie  ?  "  says  I. 

Jim  paused  with  his  trousers  half  on.  "  She's  the 
gallantest  little  soul  God  ever  made  ! "  he  cried.  "  Lou- 
don, I'd  meant  to  knock  you  up  last  night,  and  I  hope 
you  won't  take  it  unfriendly  that  I  didn't.  I  went  ii) 
and  looked  at  you  asleep;  and  I  saw  you  were  al' 
broken  up,  and  let  you  be.  The  news  would  keep,  any 
way;  and  even  you,  Loudon,  couldn't  feel  it  the  sam< 
way  as  I  did." 

"What  news?"  I  asked. 

"  It's  this  way,"  says  Jim.  "  I  told  her  how  we  stood, 
and  that  I  backed  down  from  marrying.  '  Are  you  tired 
of  me  ?  '  says  she  :  God  bless  her  !  Well,  I  explained 
the  whole  thing  over  again,  the  chance  of  smash,  your 
absence  unavoidable,  the  point  I  made  of  having  you 
for  the  best  man,  and  that.  *  If  you're  not  tired  of  me, 
I  think  I  see  one  way  to  manage,'  says  she.  '  Let's  get 
married  to-morrow,  and  Mr.  Loudon   can   be   best  man 


JIM    AND   I   TAKE   DIFFERENT   WAYS.  231 

before  he  goes  to  sea.'  That's  how  she  said  it,  crisp 
and  bright,  like  one  of  Dickens's  characters.  It  was  no 
good  for  me  to  talk  about  the  smash.  'You'll  want 
me  all  the  more,'  she  said.  Loudon,  I  only  pray  I  can 
make  it  up  to  her;  I  prayed  for  it  last  night  beside 
your  bed,  while  you  lay  sleeping  —  for  you,  and  Mamie 
and  myself;  and  —  I  don't  know  if  you  quite  believe 
in  prayer,  I'm  a  bit  Ingersollian  myself  —  but  a  kind 
of  sweetness  came  over  me,  and  I  couldn't  help  but 
think  it  was  an  answer.  Never  was  a  man  so  lucky ! 
You  and  me  and  Mamie ;  it's  a  triple  cord,  Loudon.  If 
either  of  you  were  to  die !  And  she  likes  you  so  much, 
and  thinks  you  so  accomplished  and  distingue-looking, 
and  was  just  as  set  as  I  was  to  have  you  for  best  man. 
*  Mr.  Loudon,'  she  calls  you ;  seems  to  me  so  friendly ! 
And  she  sat  up  till  three  in  the  morning  fixing  up  a 
costume  for  the  marriage ;  it  did  me  good  to  see  hei*, 
Loudon,  and  to  see  that  needle  going,  going,  and  to 
say  '  All  this  hurry,  Jim,  is  just  to  marry  you ! '  I 
couldn't  believe  it ;  it  was  so  like  some  blame'  fairy 
story.  To  think  of  those  old  tin-type  times  about 
turned  my  head ;  I  was  so  unrefined  then,  and  so 
illiterate,  and  so  lonesome ;  and  here  I  am  in  clover, 
and  I'm  blamed  if  I  can  see  what  I've  done  to  deserve 
it." 

So  he  poured  forth  with  innocent  volubility  the  ful- 
ness of  his  heart ;  and  I,  from  these  irregular  communi- 
cations, must  pick  out,  here  a  little  and  there  a  little, 


232  THE   WRECKER. 

tlie  particulars  of  his  new  plan.  They  were  to  be  mar- 
ried,  sure  enough,  that  day ;  the  wedding  breakfast  was 
to  be  at  Frank's;  the  evening  to  be  passed  in  a  visit 
of  God-speed  aboard  the  Norali  Creina;  and  then  we 
were  to  part,  Jim  and  I,  he  to  his  married  life,  I  on  my 
sea-enterprise.  If  ever  I  cherished  an  ill-feeling  for 
Miss  Mamie,  I  forgave  her  now ;  so  brave  and  kind,  so 
pretty  and  venturesome,  was  her  decision.  The  weather 
frowned  overhead  with  a  leaden  sky,  and  San  Francisco 
had  never  (in  all  my  experience)  looked  so  bleak,  and 
gaunt,  and  shoddy,  and  crazy,  like  a  city  prematurely 
old ;  but  through  all  my  wanderings  and  errands  to  and 
fro,  by  the  dock  side  or  in  the  jostling  street,  among 
rude  sounds  and  ugly  sights,  there  ran  in  my  mind, 
like  a  tiny  strain  of  music,  the  thought  of  my  friend's 
happiness. 

For  that  was  indeed  a  day  of  many  and  incongruous 
occupations.  Breakfast  was  scarce  swallowed,  before 
Jim  must  run  to  the  City  Hall  and  Frank's  about  the 
cares  of  marriage,  and  I  hurry  to  John  Smith's  upon  the 
account  of  stores,  and  thence,  on  a  visit  of  certification, 
to  the  Norah  Creina.  Methought  she  looked  smaller 
than  ever,  sundry  great  ships  overspiring  her  from  close 
without.  She  was  already  a  nightmare  of  disorder ;  and 
the  wharf  alongside  was  piled  with  a  world  of  casks,  and 
cases,  and  tins,  and  tools,  and  coils  of  rope,  and  miniature 
barrels  of  giant  powder,  such  as  it  seemed  no  human 
ingenuity  could  stuff  on  board  of  her.     Johnson  was  in 


JIM  AND   I  TAKE  DIFFERENT   WAYS.  233 

the  waist,  in  a  red  shirt  and  dungaree  trousers,  his  eye 
kindled  with  activity.  With  him  I  exchanged  a  word 
or  two;  thence  stepped  aft  along  the  narrow  alleyway 
between  the  house  and  the  rail,  and  down  the  companion 
to  the  main  cabin,  where  the  captain  sat  with  the  com- 
missioner at  wine. 

I  gazed  with  disaffection  at  the  little  box  which  for 
many  a  day  I  was  to  call  home.  On  the  starboard  was  a 
stateroom  for  the  captain ;  on  the  port,  a  pair  of  frowsy 
berths,  one  over  the  other,  and  abutting  astern  upon  the 
side  of  an  unsavoury  cupboard.  The  walls  were  yellow 
and  damp,  the  floor  black  and  greasy ;  there  was  a  pro- 
digious litter  of  straw,  old  newspapers,  and  broken  pack- 
ing-cases ;  and  by  way  of  ornament,  only  a  glass-rack,  a 
thermometer  presented  "with  compliments"  of  some 
advertising  whiskey-dealer,  and  a  swinging  lamp.  It 
was  hard  to  foresee  that,  before  a  week  was  up,  I  should 
regard  that  cabin  as  cheerful,  lightsome,  airy,  and  even 
spacious. 

I  was  presented  to  the  commissioner,  and  to  a  young 
friend  of  his  whom  he  had  brought  with  him  for  the 
purpose  (apparently)  of  smoking  cigars ;  and  after  we 
had  pledged  one  another  in  a  glass  of  California  port,  a 
trifle  sweet  and  sticky  for  a  morning  beverage,  the  func- 
tionary spread  his  papers  on  the  table,  and  the  hands 
were  summoned.  Down  they  trooped,  accordingly,  into 
the  cabin ;  and  stood  eying  the  ceiling  or  the  floor,  the 
picture  of  sheepish  embarrassment,  and  with  a  common 


234  THE   WEECKER. 

air  of  wanting  to  expectorate  and  not  quite  daring.  In 
admirable  contrast,  stood  the  Chinese  cook,  easy,  dig- 
nified, set  apart  by  spotless  raiment,  the  hidalgo  of  the 
seas. 

I  daresay  you  never  had  occasion  to  assist  at  the  farce 
which  followed.  Our  shipping  laws  in  the  United 
States  (thanks  to  the  inimitable  Dana)  are  conceived  in 
a  spirit  of  paternal  stringency,  and  proceed  throughout, 
on  the  hypothesis  that  poor  Jack  is  an  imbecile,  and 
the  other  parties  to  the  contract,  rogues  and  rufiians.  A 
long  and  wordy  paper  of  precautions,  a  fo'c's'le  bill  of 
rights,  must  be  read  separately  to  each  man.  I  had 
now  the  benefit  of  hearing  it  five  times  in  brisk  suc- 
cession ;  and  you  would  suppose  I  was  acquainted  with 
its  contents.  But  the  commissioner  (worthy  man) 
spends  his  days  in  doing  little  else ;  and  when  we  bear 
in  mind  the  parallel  case  of  the  irreverent  curate,  we 
need  not  be  surprised  that  he  took  the  passage  tempo 
prestissimo,  in  one  roulade  of  gabble  —  that  I,  with  the 
trained  attention  of  an  educated  man,  could  gather  but  a 
fraction  of  its  import  —  and  the  sailors  nothing.  No 
profanity  in  giving  orders,  no  sheath-knives,  Midway 
Island  and  any  other  port  the  master  may  direct,  not  to 
exceed  six  calendar  months,  and  to  this  port  to  be  paid 
off:  so  it  seemed  to  run,  with  surprising  verbiage;  so 
ended.  And  with  the  end,  the  commissioner,  in  each 
case,  fetched  a  deep  breath,  resumed  his  natural  voice, 
and  proceeded  to  business.     "  Now,  my  man,"  he  would 


JIM   AND    1    TAKE   DIFFERE^'T    WAYS.  235 

say,  "you  ship  A.  B.  at  so  many  dollars,  American  gold 
coin.  Sign  your  name  here,  if  you  have  one,  and  can 
write."  Whereupon,  and  the  name  (with  infinite  hard 
breathing)  being  signed,  the  commissioner  would  pro- 
ceed to  fill  in  the  man's  appearance,  height,  etc.,  on  the 
official  form.  In  this  task  of  literary  portraiture  he 
seemed  to  rely  wholly  upon  temperament;  for  I  could 
not  perceive  him  to  cast  one  glance  on  any  of  his  models. 
He  was  assisted,  however,  by  a  running  commentary 
from  the  captain:  "Hair  blue  and  eyes  red,  nose  five 
foot  seven,  and  stature  broken  "  —  jests  as  old,  presum- 
ably, as  the  American  marine;  ?nd,  like  the  similar 
pleasantries  of  the  billiard  board,  perennially  relished. 
The  highest  note  of  humour  was  reached  in  the  case  of 
the  Chinese  cook,  who  was  shipped  under  the  name  of 
"  One  Lung,"  to  the  sound  of  his  own  protests  and  the 
self-approving  chuckles  of  the  functionary. 

"Now,  Captain,"  said  the  latter,  when  the  men  were 
gone,  and  he  had  bundled  up  his  papers,  "the  law  re- 
quires you  to  carry  a  slop-chest  and  a  chest  of  medicines." 

"I  guess  I  know  that,"  said  iSTares. 

"I  guess  you  do,"  returned  the  commissioner,  and 
helped  himself  to  port. 

But  when  he  was  gone,  I  appealed  to  Nares  on  the 
same  subject,  for  I  was  well  aware  we  carried  none  of 
these  provisions. 

"Well,"  drawled  ISTares,  "there's  sixty  pounds  of  nig- 
gerhead  on  the  quay,  isn't  there  ?  and  twenty  pounds  of 


236  THE   WRECKER. 

salts ;  and  I  never  travel  without  some  painkiller  in  my 
gripsack." 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  we  were  richer.  The  captain  had 
the  usual  sailor's  provision  of  quack  medicines,  with 
which,  in  the  usual  sailor  fashion,  he  Avould  daily  drug 
himself,  displaying  an  extreme  inconstancy,  and  flitting 
from  Kennedy's  Eed  Discovery  to  Kennedy's  White,  and 
from  Hood's  Sarsaparilla  to  Mother  Seigel's  Syrup.  And 
there  were,  besides,  some  mildewed  and  half-empty  bot- 
tles, the  labels  obliterated,  over  which  Nares  would 
sometimes  sniff  and  speculate.  "Seems  to  smell  like 
diarrhoea  stuff,"  he  would  remark.  "I  wish't  I  knew, 
and  I  would  try  it."  But  the  slop-chest  was  indeed  rep- 
resented by  the  plugs  of  niggerhead,  and  nothing  else. 
Thus  paternal  laAvs  are  made,  thus  they  are  evaded; 
and  the  schooner  put  to  sea,  like  plenty  of  her  neigh- 
bours, liable  to  a  fine  of  six  hundred  dollars. 

This  characteristic  scene,  which  has  delayed  me  over- 
long,  was  but  a  moment  in  that  day  of  exercise  and  agi- 
tation. To  fit  out  a  schooner  for  sea,  and  improvise  a 
marriage  between  dawn  and  dusk,  involves  heroic  effort. 
All  day  Jim  and  I  ran,  and  tramped,  and  laughed,  and 
came  near  crying,  and  fell  in  sudden  anxious  consulta- 
tions, and  were  sped  (with  a  prepared  sarcasm  on  our 
lips)  to  some  fallacious  milliner,  and  made  dashes  to  the 
schooner  and  John  Smith's,  and  at  eveiy  second  corner 
were  reminded,  (by  our  own  huge  posters,)  of  our  des- 
perate estate.     Between  whiles,  I  had  found  the  time  to 


JIM  AND   I  TAKE  DIFFERENT   WAYS.  237 

hover  at  some  half-a-dozen  jewellers'  windows  ;  and  my 
present,  thus  intemperately  chosen,  was  graciously  ac- 
cepted. I  believe,  indeed,  that  was  the  last  (though  not 
the  least)  of  my  concerns,  before  the  old  minister,  shabby 
and  benign,  was  routed  from  his  house  and  led  to  the 
office  like  a  performing  poodle ;  and  there,  in  the  grow- 
ing dusk,  under  the  cold  glitter  of  Thirteen  Star,  two 
hundred  strong,  and  beside  the  garish  glories  of  the 
agricultural  engine,  Mamie  and  Jim  were  made  one. 
The  scene  was  incongruous,  but  the  business  pretty, 
whimsical,  and  affecting:  the  typewriters  with  such 
kindly  faces  and  fine  posies,  Mamie  so  demure,  and  Jim 
—  how  shall  I  describe  that  poor,  transfigured  Jim? 
He  began  by  taking  the  minister  aside  to  the  far  end  of 
the  ofiice.  I  knew  not  what  he  said,  but  I  have  reason 
to  believe  he  was  protesting  his  unfitness ;  for  he  wept 
as  he  said  it :  and  the  old  minister,  himself  genuinely 
moved,  was  heard  to  console  and  encourage  him,  and  at 
one  time  to  use  this  expression:  "I  assure  you,  Mr. 
Pinkerton,  there  are  not  many  who  can  say  so  much  "  — 
from  which  I  gathered  that  my  friend  had  tempered  his 
self-accusations  with  at  least  one  legitimate  boast. 
From  this  ghostly  counselling,  Jim  turned  to  me ;  and 
though  he  never  got  bej^ond  the  explosive  utterance  of 
nij  name  and  one  fierce  handgrip,  communicated  some 
of  his  own  emotion,  like  a  charge  of  electricity,  to  his 
best  man.  We  stood  up  to  the  ceremony  at  last,  in  a 
general  and  kindly  discomposure.     Jim  was  all  abroad ; 


238  THE    WKECKER. 

and  the  divine  himself  betrayed  his  sympathy  in  voice 
and  demeanour,  and  concUided  with  a  fatherly  allocu- 
tion, in  which  he  congratulated  Mamie  (calling  her  "my 
dear")  upon  the  fortune  of  an  excellent  husband,  and 
protested  he  had  rarely  married  a  more  interesting 
couple.  At  this  stage,  like  a  glory  descending,  there 
was  handed  in,  ex  macMna,  the  card  of  Douglas  B.  Long- 
hurst,  with  congratulations  and  four  dozen  Perrier-Jouet. 
A  bottle  was  opened;  and  the  minister  pledged  the 
bride,  and  the  bridesmaids  simpered  and  tasted,  and  I 
made  a  speech  with  airy  bacchanalianism,  glass  in  hand. 
But  poor  Jim  must  leave  the  wine  untasted.  "Don't 
touch  it,"  I  had  found  the  opportunity  to  whisper ;  "  in 
your  state,  it  will  make  you  as  drunk  as  a  fiddler." 
And  Jim  had  wrung  my  hand,  with  a  "  God  bless  you, 
Loudon  !  —  saved  me  again ! " 

Hard  following  upon  this,  the  supper  passed  off  at 
Frank's  with  somewhat  tremulous  gaiety.  And  thence, 
with  one  half  of  the  Perrier-Jouet  —  I  would  accept  no 
more  —  we  voyaged  in  a  hack  to  the  Norah  Creina. 

"  What  a  dear  little  ship  !  "  cried  Mamie,  as  our  minia- 
ture craft  was  pointed  out  to  her.  And  then,  on  second 
thought,  she  turned  to  the  best  man.  "  And  how  brave 
you  must  be,  Mr.  Dodd,"  she  cried,  "  to  go  in  that  tiny 
thing  so  far  upon  the  ocean ! "  And  I  perceived  I  had 
risen  in  the  lady's  estimation. 

The  dear  little  ship  presented  a  horrid  picture  of  con- 
fusion, and  its  occupants  of  weariness  and  ill-humour. 


JIM   AND   I   TAKE  DIFFERENT   WAYS.  239 

From  the  cabin  the  cook  was  storing  tins  into  the  laza- 
rette,  and  the  four  hands,  sweaty  and  sullen,  were  passing 
them  from  one  to  another  from  the  waist.  Johnson  was 
three  parts  asleep  over  the  table;  and  in  his  bunk,  in 
his  own  cabin,  the  captain  sourly  chewed  and  puffed  at 
a  cigar. 

"See  here,"  he  said,  rising;  "you'll  be  sorry  you  came. 
We  can't  stop  work  if  we're  to  get  away  to-morrow. 
A  ship  getting  ready  for  sea  is  no  place  for  people,  any- 
way.    You'll  only  interrupt  my  men." 

I  was  on  the  point  of  answering  something  tart ;  but 
Jim,  who  was  acquainted  with  the  breed,  as  he  was  with 
most  things  that  had  a  bearing  on  affairs,  made  haste  to 
pour  in  oil. 

"Captain,"  he  said,  "I  know  we're  a  nuisance  here, 
and  that  you've  had  a  rough  time.  But  all  we  want  is 
that  you  should  drink  one  glass  of  wine  with  us,  Perrier- 
Jouet,  from  Longhurst,  on  the  occasion  of  my  marriage, 
and  Loudon's  —  Mr.  Dodd's  —  departure." 

"  Well,  it's  your  lookout,"  said  Nares.  "  I  don't  mind 
half  an  hour.  Spell,  0  ! "  he  added  to  the  men ;  "  go 
and  kick  your  heels  for  half  an  hour,  and  then  you  can 
turn  to  again  a  trifle  livelier.  Johnson,  see  if  you  can't 
wipe  off  a  chair  for  the  lady." 

His  tone  was  no  more  gracious  than  his  language ;  but 
when  Mamie  had  turned  upon  him  the  soft  fire  of  her 
eyes,  and  informed  him  that  he  was  the  first  sea-captain 
she  had  ever  met,   "  except  captains  of  steamers,   of 


240  THE   WRECKER. 

course  "  —  slie  so  qualified  the  statement  —  and  had  ex- 
j)ressed  a  lively  sense  of  his  courage,  and  perhaps  im- 
plied (for  I  suppose  the  arts  of  ladies  are  the  same 
as  those  of  men)  a  modest  consciousness  of  his  good 
looks,  our  bear  began  insensibly  to  soften;  and  it  was 
already  part  as  an  apology,  though  still  with  unaffected 
heat  of  temper,  that  he  volunteered  some  sketch  of  his 
annoyances. 

"A  pretty  mess  we've  had,"  said  he.  "Half  the 
stores  were  wrong;  I'll  wring  John  Smith's  neck  for 
him  some  of  these  days.  Then  two  newspaper  beasts 
came  down,  and  tried  to  raise  copy  out  of  me,  till  I 
threatened  them  with  the  first  thing  handy ;  and  then 
some  kind  of  missionary  bug,  wanting  to  work  his  pas- 
sage to  Eaiatea  or  somewhere.  I  told  him  I  would  take 
him  off  the  wharf  with  the  butt  end  of  my  boot,  and  he 
went  away  cursing.  This  vessel's  been  depreciated  by 
the  look  of  him." 

While  the  captain  spoke,  with  his  strange,  humourous, 
arrogant  abruptness,  I  observed  Jim  to  be  sizing  him 
up,  like  a  thing  at  once  quaint  and  familiar,  and  witli  a 
scrutiny  that  was  both  curious  and  knowing. 

"One  word,  dear  boy,"  he  said,  turning  suddenly  to 
me.  And  when  he  had  drawn  me  on  deck,  "That 
man,"  says  he,  "will  carry  sail  till  your  hair  grows 
white ;  but  never  you  let  on,  never  breathe  a  word.  I 
know  his  line :  he'll  die  before  he'll  take  advice ;  and  if 
you  get  his  back  up,  he'll  run  you  right  under.     I  don't 


JIM   AND   I   TAKE   DIFFERENT   WAYS.  241 

often  jam  in  my  advice,  Loudon;  and  when  I  do,  it 
means  I'm  thoroughly  posted." 

The  little  party  in  the  cabin,  so  disastrously  begun, 
finished,  under  the  mellowing  influence  of  wine  and 
woman,  in  excellent  feeling  and  with  some  hilarity. 
Mamie,  in  a  plush  Gainsborough  hat  and  a  gown  of 
wine-coloured  silk,  sat,  an  apparent  queen,  among  her 
rude  surroundings  and  companions.  The  dusky  litter 
of  the  cabin  set  off  her  radiant  trimness :  tarry  John- 
son was  a  foil  to  her  fair  beauty ;  she  glowed  in  that 
poor  place,  fair  as  a  star;  until  even  I,  who  was  not 
usually  of  her  admirers,  caught  a  spark  of  admira- 
tion ;  and  even  the  captain,  who  was  in  no  courtly  hu- 
mour, proposed  that  the  scene  should  be  commemorated 
by  my  pencil.  It  was  the  last  act  of  the  evening. 
Hurriedly  as  I  went  about  my  task,  the  half-hour  had 
lengthened  out  to  more  than  three  before  it  was  com- 
pleted :  Mamie  in  full  value,  the  rest  of  the  party  figur- 
ing in  outline  only,  and  the  artist  himself  introduced  in 
a  back  view,  which  was  pronounced  a  likeness.  But  it 
was  to  Mamie  that  I  devoted  the  best  of  my  attention ; 
and  it  was  with  her  I  made  my  chief  success. 

"  0  ! "  she  cried,  "  am  I  really  like  that  ?  No  wonder 
Jim  ..."  She  paused.  "Why  it's  ju.st  as  lovely  as 
he's  good  ! "  she  cried :  an  epigram  which  was  appreci- 
ated,  and  repeated  as  we  made  our  salutations,  and 
called  out  after  the  retreating  couple  as  they  passed 
away  under  the  lamplight  on  the  wharf. 


242  THE  WRECKEPw 

Thus  it  was  tliat  our  farewells  were  smuggled  through 
under  an  ambuscade  of  laughter,  and  the  parting  over 
ere  I  knew  it  was  begun.  The  figures  vanished,  the 
steps  died  away  along  the  silent  city  front;  on  board, 
the  men  had  returned  to  their  labours,  the  captain  to  his 
solitary  cigar ;  and  after  that  long  and  complex  day  of 
business  and  emotion,  I  was  at  last  alone  and  free.  It 
was,  perhaps,  chiefly  fatigue  that  made  my  heart  so 
heavy.  I  leaned  at  least  upon  the  house,  and  stared  at 
the  foggy  heaven,  or  over  the  rail  at  the  wavering  reflec- 
tion of  the  lamps,  like  a  man  that  was  quite  done  with 
hope  and  would  have  welcomed  the  asylum  of  the  grave. 
And  all  at  once,  as  I  thus  stood,  the  City  of  Pekin  flashed 
into  my  mind,  racing  her  thirteen  knots  for  Honolulu, 
with  the  hated  Trent  —  perhaps  with  the  mysterious 
Goddedaal  —  on  board ;  and  with  the  thought,  the  blood 
leaped  and  careered  through  all  my  body.  It  seemed  no 
chase  at  all ;  it  seemed  we  had  no  chance,  as  we  lay 
there  bound  to  iron  pillars,  and  fooling  away  the  pre- 
cious moments  over  tins  of  beans.  "Let  them  get 
there  first!"  I  thought.  "Let  them!  We  can't  be  long 
behind."  And  from  that  moment,  I  date  myself  a  man 
of  a  rounded  experience:  nothing  had  lacked  but  this, 
that  I  should  entertain  and  welcome  the  grim  thought 
of  bloodshed. 

It  was  long  before  the  toil  remitted  in  the  cabin,  and 
it  was  worth  my  while  to  get  to  bed;  long  after  that, 
before  sleep  favoured  me ;  and  scarce  a  moment  later  (or 


JIM   AND   I   TAKE   DIFFERENT    WAYS.  243 

SO  it  seemed)  when  I  was  recalled  to  consciousness  by 
bawling  men  and  the  jar  of  straining  hawsers. 

The  schooner  was  cast  off  before  I  got  on  deck.  In 
the  misty  obscurity  of  the  first  dawn,  I  saw  the  tug 
heading  us  with  glowing  fires  and  blowing  smoke,  and 
heard  her  beat  the  roughened  waters  of  the  bay.  Beside 
us,  on  her  flock  of  hills,  the  lighted  city  towered  up  and 
stood  swollen  in  the  raw  fog.  It  was  strange  to  see  her 
burn  on  thus  wastefully,  with  half-quenched  luminaries, 
when  the  dawn  was  already  grown  strong  enough  to 
show  me,  and  to  suffer  me  to  recognise,  a  solitary  figure 
standing  by  the  piles. 

Or  was  it  really  the  eye,  and  not  rather  the  heart, 
that  identified  that  shadow  in  the  dusk,  among  the 
shoreside  lamps  ?  I  know  not.  It  was  Jim,  at  least ; 
Jim,  come  for  a  last  look ;  and  we  had  but  time  to  wave 
a  valedictory  gesture  and  exchange  a  wordless  cry.  This 
was  our  second  parting,  and  our  capacities  were  now 
reversed.  It  was  mine  to  play  the  Argonaut,  to  speed 
affairs,  to  plan  and  to  accomplish  —  if  need  were,  at  the 
price  of  life ;  it  was  his  to  sit  at  home,  to  study  tlie 
calendar,  and  to  wait.  I  knew  besides  another  thing 
that  gave  me  joy.  I  knew  that  my  friend  had  succeeded 
in  my  education;  that  the  romance  of  business,  if  our 
fantastic  purchase  merited  the  name,  had  at  last  stirred 
my  dilletante  nature;  and,  as  we  swept  under  cloudy 
Tamalpais  and  through  the  roaring  narrows  of  the  bay, 


244  TFIE   WRECKER. 

the  Yankee  blood  sang  in  my  veins  witli  suspense  and 
exultation. 

Outside  the  heads,  as  if  to  meet  my  desire,  we  found 
it  blowing  fresh  from  the  northeast.  No  time  had  been 
lost.  The  sun  was  not  yet  up  before  the  tug  cast  off 
the  hawser,  gave  us  a  salute  of  three  whistles,  and 
turned  homeward  toward  the  coast,  which  now  began  to 
gleam  along  its  margin  with  the  earliest  rays  of .  day. 
There  was  no  other  ship  in  view  when  the  Noixih  Creina, 
lying  over  under  all  plain  sail,  began  her  long  and  lonely 
voyage  to  the  wreck. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

THE    "NORAH    creina." 


I  love  to  recall  the  glad  monotony  of  a  Pacific  voyage, 
when  the  trades  are  not  stinted,  and  the  ship,  day  after 
day,  goes  free.  The  mountain  scenery  of  trade-wind 
clouds,  watched  (and  in  my  case  painted)  under  every 
vicissitude  of  light  —  blotting  stars,  withering  in  the 
moon's  glory,  barring  the  scarlet  eve,  lying  across  the 
dawn  collapsed  into  the  unfeatured  morning  bank,  or  at 
noon  raising  their  snowy  summits  between  the  blue  roof 
of  heaven  and  the  blue  floor  of  sea ;  the  small,  busy,  and 


THE   "  NOKAH   CREINA."  245 

deliberate  world  of  the  scliooiier,  with  its  unfamiliar 
scenes,  the  spearing  of  dolphin  from  the  bowsprit  end, 
the  holy  war  on  sharks,  the  cook  making  bread  on  the 
main  hatch;  reefing  down  before  a  violent  squall,  with 
the  men  hanging  out  on  the  foot-ropes ;  the  squall  itself, 
the  catch  at  the  heart,  the  opened  sluices  of  the  sky; 
and  the  relief,  the  renewed  loveliness  of  life,  when  all  is 
over,  the  sun  forth  again,  and  our  out-fought  enemy  only 
a  blot  upon  the  leeward  sea.  I  love  to  recall,  and 
would  that  I  could  reproduce  that  life,  the  unforget- 
able,  the  unrememberable.  The  memory,  which  shows 
so  wise  a  backwardness  in  registering  pain,  is  besides  an 
imperfect  recorder  of  extended  pleasures ;  and  a  long- 
continued  well-being  escapes  (as  it  were,  by  its  mass) 
our  petty  methods  of  commemoration.  On  a  part  of  our 
life's  map  there  lies  a  roseate,  undecipherable  haze,  and 
that  is  all. 

Of  one  thing,  if  I  am  at  all  to  trust  my  own  annals,  I 
was  delightedly  conscious.  Day  after  day,  in  the  sun- 
gilded  cabin,  the  whiskey-dealer's  thermometer  stood  at 
84.  Day  after  day,  the  air  had  the  same  indescribable 
liveliness  and  sweetness,  soft  and  nimble,  and  cool  as  the 
cheek  of  health.  Day  after  day  the  sun  flamed ;  night 
after  night  the  moon  beaconed,  or  the  stars  paraded 
their  lustrous  regiment.  I  was  aware  of  a  spiritual 
change,  or,  perhaps,  rather  a  molecular  reconstitution. 
My  bones  were  sweeter  to  me.  I  I  had  come  home  to  my 
own  climate,  and  looked  back  witli  pity  on  those  damp 
and  wintry  zones,  miscalled  the  temperate.  / 


246  THE    WRECKER. 

"Two  years  of  this,  and  comfortable  quarters  to  live 
in,  kind  of  shake  the  grit  out  of  a  man,"  the  captain 
remarked ;  "  can't  make  out  to  be  hapj)y  anywhere  else. 
A  townie  of  mine  was  lost  down  this  way,  in  a  coal  ship 
that  took  fire  at  sea.  He  struck  the  beach  somewhere 
in  the  Navigators;  and  he  wrote  to  me  that  when  he 
left  the  place,  it  would  be  feet  first.  He's  well  off,  too, 
and  his  father  owns  some  coasting  craft  Down  East ; 
but  Billy  prefers  the  beach,  and  hot  rolls  off  the  bread- 
fruit trees." 

A  voice  told  me  I  was  on  the  same  track  as  Billy. 
But  when  was  this  ?  Our  outward  track  in  the  Nordli 
Creina  lay  well  to  the  northward ;  and  perhaps  it  is 
but  the  impression  of  a  few  pet  days  which  I  have 
unconsciously  spread  longer,  or  perhaps  the  feeling 
grew  upon  me  later,  in  the  run  to  Honolulu.  One  thing 
I  am  sure :  it  was  before  I  had  ever  seen  an  island 
worthy  of  the  name  that  I  must  date  my  loyalty  to  the 
South  Seas.  The  blank  sea  itself  grew  desirable  under 
such  skies  ;  (and  wherever  the  trade-wind  blows,  I  know 
no  better  country  than  a  schooner's  deck^) 

But  for  the  tugging  anxiety  as  to  the  journey's  end, 
the  journey  itself  must  thus  have  counted  for  the  best 
of  holidays.  My  physical  well-being  was  over-proof; 
effects  of  sea  and  sky  kept  me  forever  busy  with  my 
pencil;  and  I  had  no  lack  of  intellectual  exercise  of  a 
different  order  in  the  study  of  my  inconsistent  friend, 
the  captain.     I  call  him  friend,  here  on  the  threshold; 


THE    "  NOKAH   CREINA."  247 

but  that  is  to  look  well  ahead.  At  first,  I  was  too  much 
horrified  by  what  I  considered  his  barbarities,  too  much 
puzzled  by  his  shifting  humours,  and  too  frequently 
annoyed  by  his  small  vanities,  to  regard  him  otherwise 
than  as  the  cross  of  my  existence.  It  was  only  by 
degrees,  in  his  rare  hours  of  pleasantness,  when  he  for- 
got (and  made  me  forget)  the  weaknesses  to  which  he 
was  so  prone,  that  he  won  me  to  a  kind  of  unconsenting 
fondness.  Lastly,  the  faults  were  all  embraced  in  a 
more  generous  view :  I  saw  them  in  their  place,  like  dis- 
cords in  a  musical  progression;  and  accepted  them  and 
found  them  picturesque,  as  we  accept  and  admire,  in  the 
habitable  face  of  nature,  the  smoky  head  of  the  volcano 
or  the  pernicious  thicket  of  the  swamp. 

He  was  come  of  good  people  Down  East,  and  had  the 
beginnings  of  a  thorough  education.  His  temper  had 
been  ungovernable  from  the  first;  and  it  is  likely  the 
defect  was  inherited,  and  the  blame  of  the  rupture  not 
entirely  his.  He  ran  away  at  least  to  sea;  suffered 
horrible  maltreatment,  which  seemed  to  have  rather 
hardened  than  enlightened  him;  ran  away  again  to 
shore  in  a  South  American  ]3ort ;  proved  his  capacity 
and  made  money,  although  still  a  child;  fell  among 
thieves  and  was  robbed;  worked  back  a  passage  to  the 
States,  and  knocked  one  morning  at  the  door  of  an  old 
lady  whose  orchard  he  had  often  robbed.  The  intro- 
duction  appears  insufficient ;  but  Kares  knew  Avhat  he 
was  doing.     The  sight  of  her  old  neighbourly  deprcdatoif 


248  THE   WRECKER. 

shivering  at  the  door  in  tatters,  the  very  oddity  of  his 
appeal,  touched  a  soft  spot  in  the  spinster's  heart.  "  I 
always  had  a  fancy  for  the  old  lady,"  Nares  said,  "even 
when  she  used  to  stampede  me  out  of  the  orchard,  and 
shake  her  thimble  and  her  old  curls  at  me  out  of  the 
window  as  I  was  going  by ;  I  always  thought  she  was  a 
kind  of  pleasant  old  girl.  Well,  when  she  came  to  the 
door  that  morning,  I  told  her  so,  and  that  I  was  stone- 
broke;  and  she  took  me  right  in,  and  fetched  out  the 
pie."  She  clothed  him,  taught  him,  had  him  to  sea 
again  in  better  shape,  welcomed  him  to  her  hearth  on 
his  return  from  every  cruise,  and  when  she  died,  be- 
queathed him  her  possessions.  "She  was  a  good  old 
girl,"  he  would  say.  "  I  tell  you,  Mr.  Dodd,  it  was  a 
queer  thing  to  see  me  and  the  old  lady  talking  a  pasear 
in  the  garden,  and  the  old  man  scowling  at  us  over  the 
pickets.  She  lived  right  next  door  to  the  old  man,  and 
I  guess  that's  just  what  took  me  there.  I  wanted  him 
to  know  that  I  was  badly  beat,  you  see,  and  would  rather 
go  to  the  devil  than  to  him.  What  made  the  dig  harder, 
he  had  quarrelled  with  the  old  lady  about  me  and  the 
orchard:  I  guess  that  made  him  rage.  Yes,  I  was  a 
beast  when  I  was  young.  But  I  was  always  pretty 
good  to  the  old  lady."  Since  then  he  had  prospered, 
not  uneventfully,  in  his  profession;  the  old  lady's  money 
had  fallen  in  during  the  voyage  of  the  Gleaner,  and 
he  was  now,  as  soon  as  the  smoke  of  that  engagement 
cleared   away,  secure   of    his  ship.     I   suppose  he  was 


THE   "NORAH  CKEINA."  249 

about  thirty:  a  powerful,  active  man,  with  a  blue  eye, 
a  thick  head  of  hair,  about  the  colour  of  oakum  and 
growing  low  over  the  brow  ;  clean-shaved  and  lean  about 
the  jaw;  a  good  singer;  a  good  performer  on  that  sea- 
instrument,  the  accordion ;  a  quick  observer,  a  close 
reasoner ;  when  he  pleased,  of  a  really  elegant  address ; 
and  when  he  chose,  the  greatest  brute  upon  the  seas. 

His  usage  of  the  men,  his  hazing,  his  bullying,  his 
perpetual  fault-finding  for  no  cause,  his  perpetual  and 
brutal  sarcasm,  might  have  raised  a  mutiny  in  a  slave 
galley.  Suppose  the  steerman's  eye  to  have  wandered: 
"You — ,  — ,  little,  mutton-faced  Dutchman,"  Nares 
would  bawl ;  "  you  want  a  booting  to  keep  you  on  your 
course !  I  know  a  little  city -front  slush  when  I  see  one. 
Just  you  glue  your  eye  to  that  compass,  or  I'll  show  you 
round  the  vessel  at  the  but-end  of  my  boot."  Or  sup- 
pose a  hand  to  linger  aft,  whither  he  had  perhaps  been 
summoned  not  a  minute  before.  "  Mr.  Daniells,  will  you 
oblige  me  by  stepping  clear  of  that  main  sheet  ?  "  the 
captain  might  begin,  with  truculent  courtesy.  "Thank 
you.  And  perhaps  you'll  be  so  kind  as  to  tell  me  what 
the  hell  you're  doing  on  my  quarter-deck?  I  want  no 
dirt  of  your  sort  here.  Is  there  nothing  for  you  to  do? 
Where's  the  mate?  Don't  you  set  me  to  find  work  for 
you,  or  I'll  find  you  some  that  will  keep  }ou  on  your 
back  a  fortnight."  Such  allocutions,  conceived  with  a 
perfect  knowledge  of  his  audience,  so  that  every  insult 
carried  home,  were  delivered  with  a  mien  so  menacing 


250  THE   WllECKEK. 

and  an  eye  so  fiercely  cruel,  that  his  unhappy  subordi- 
nates shrank  and  quailed.  Too  often  violence  followed ; 
too  often  I  have  heard  and  seen,  and  boiled  at  the  cow- 
Ardly  aggression;  and  the  victim,  his  hands  bound  by 
law,  has  risen  again  from  deck  and  crawled  forward 
stupefied  —  I  know  not  what  passion  of  revenge  in  his 
wronged  heart. 

It  seems  strange  I  should  have  grown  to  like  this 
tyrant.  It  may  even  seem  strange  that  I  should  have 
stood  by  and  suffered  his  excesses  to  proceed.  But  I 
was  not  quite  such  a  chicken  as  to  interfere  in  public ; 
for  I  would  rather  have  a  man  or  two  mishandled  than 
one  half  of  us  butchered  in  a  mutiny  and  the  rest  suffer 
on  the  gallows.  And  in  private,  I  was  unceasing  in  my 
protests. 

"  Captain,"  I  once  said  to  him,  appealing  to  his  patri- 
otism, which  was  of  a  hardy  quality,  "this  is  no  way 
to  treat  American  seamen.  You  don't  call  it  American 
to  treat  men  like  dogs  ?  " 

"  Americans  ? "  he  said  grimly.  "  Do  you  call  these 
Dutchmen  and  Scattermouches  ^  Americans  ?  I've  been 
fourteen  years  to  sea,  all  but  one  trip  under  American 
colours,  and  I've  never  laid  eye  on  an  American  foremast 
hand.     There  used  to  be  such  things  in  the  old  days, 

1  In  sea-lingo  (Pacific)  Dntrhman  includes  all  Teutons  and 
folk  from  the  basin  of  the  Baltic;  Scaltermouch,  all  Latins  and 
Levantines. 


THE   "NORAH   CHEINA."  251 

when  tMrty-five  dollars  were  the  wages  out  of  Boston ; 
and  then  you  could  see  ships  handled  and  run  the  way 
they  want  to  be.  But  that's  all  past  and  gone ;  and 
nowadays  the  only  thing  that  flies  in  an  American  ship 
is  a  belaying-pin.  You  don't  know;  you  haven't  a 
guess.  How  would  you  like  to  go  on  deck  for  your 
middle  watch,  fourteen  months  on  end,  with  all  your 
duty  to  do  and  every  one's  life  depending  on  you,  and 
expect  to  get  a  knife  ripped  into  you  as  you  come  out  of 
your  stateroom,  or  be  sand-bagged  as  you  pass  the  boat, 
or  get  tripped  into  the  hold,  if  the  hatches  are  off  in 
fine  weather  ?  That  kind  of  shakes  the  starch  out  of 
the  brotherly  love  and  New  Jerusalem  business.  You 
go  through  the  mill,  and  you'll  have  a  bigger  grudge 
against  every  old  shellback  that  dirties  his  plate  in  the 
three  oceans,  than  the  Bank  of  California  could  settle 
up.  No ;  it  has  an  ugly  look  to  it,  but  the  only  way  to 
run  a  ship  is  to  make  yourself  a  terror." 

"Come,  Captain,"  said  I,  "there  are  degrees  in  every- 
thing. You  know  American  ships  have  a  bad  name ; 
you  know  perfectly  well  if  it  wasn't  for  the  high  wage 
and  the  good  food,  there's  not  a  man  would  ship  in  one 
if  he  could  help ;  and  even  as  it  is,  some  prefer  a  British 
ship,  beastly  food  and  all." 

"  0,  the  lime-juicers  ? "  said  he.  "  There's  plenty 
booting  in  lime-juicers,  I  guess ;  though  I  don't  deny  but 
what  some  of  them  are  soft."  And  with  that  he  smiled 
like  a  man  recalling  something.    "  Look  here,  that  brings 


202  THE   WEECKER. 

a  yarn  in  my  head,"  lie  resumed;  "and  for  the  sake 
of  the  joke,  I'll  give  myself  away.  It  was  in  1874,  I 
shipped  mate  in  the  British  ship  Maria,  from  'Frisco  for 
Melbourne.  She  was  the  queerest  craft  in  some  ways 
that  ever  I  was  aboard  of.  The  food  was  a  caution; 
there  was  nothing  fit  to  put  your  lips  to  —  but  the  lime- 
juice,  which  was  from  the  end  bin  no  doubt:  it  used  to 
make  me  sick  to  see  the  men's  dinners,  and  sorry  to  see 
my  own.  The  old  man  was  good  enough,  I  guess  ;  Green 
was  his  name ;  a  mild,  fatherly  old  galoot.  But  the 
hands  were  the  lowest  gang  I  ever  handled ;  and  when- 
ever I  tried  to  knock  a  little  spirit  into  them,  the  old 
man  took  their  part!  It  was  Gilbert  and  Sullivan  on 
the  high  seas ;  but  you  bet  I  wouldn't  let  any  man  dic- 
tate to  me.  'You  give  me  your  orders,  Captain  Green,' 
I  said,  '  and  you'll  find  I'll  carry  them  out ;  that's  all 
you've  got  to  say.  You'll  find  I  do  my  duty,'  I  said; 
Hiow  I  do  it  is  my  lookout;  and  there's  no  man  born 
that's  going  to  give  me  lessons.'  Well,  there  was  plenty 
dirt  on  board  that  Maria  first  and  last.  Of  course,  the 
old  man  put  my  back  up,  and,  of  course,  he  put  up  the 
crew's ;  and  I  had  to  regular  fight  my  way  through  every 
watch.  The  men  got  to  hate  me,  so's  I  would  hear  them 
grit  their  teeth  when  I  came  up.  At  last,  one  day,  I  saw 
a  big  hulking  beast  of  a  Dutchman  booting  the  ship's 
boy.  I  made  one  shoot  of  it  off  the  house  and  laid  that 
Dutchman  out.  Up  he  came,  and  I  laid  him  out  again. 
'Now,'  I  said,  ' if  there's  a  kick  left  in  you,  just  mention 


THE   "NORAH   CREINA."  253 

it,  and  I'll  stamp  your  ribs  in  like  a  packing-case.'  He 
thought  better  of  it,  and  never  let  on;  lay  there  as 
mild  as  a  deacon  at  a  funeral ;  and  they  took  hira  below 
to  reflect  on  his  native  Dutchland.  One  night  we  got 
caught  in  rather  a  dirty  thing  about  25  south.  I  guess 
we  were  all  asleep;  for  the  first  thing  I  knew  there  was 
the  fore-royal  gone.  I  ran  forward,  bawling  blue  hell ; 
and  just  as  I  came  by  the  foremast,  something  struck 
me  right  through  the  forearm  and  stuck  there.  I  put 
my  other  hand  up,  and  by  George !  it  was  the  grain  ;  the 
beasts  had  speared  me  like  a  porpoise.  ^  Cap'n ! '  I  cried. 
— '  What's  wrong  ? '  says  he.  — '  They've  grained  me,' 
says   I.  —  '  Grained   you  ?  '   says    he.     *  Well,  I've  been 

looking  for  that.' '  And  by  God,'  I  cried,  '  I  want 

to  have  some  of  these  beasts  murdered  for  it ! '  — '  Now, 
Mr.  Nares,'  says  he,  'you  better  go  below.  If  I  had 
been  one  of  the  men,  you'd  have  got  more  than  this. 
And  I  want  no  more  of  your  language  on  deck.  You've 
cost  me  my  fore-roj^al  already,'  says  he;  'and  if  you 
carry  on,  you'll  have  the  three  sticks  out  of  her.'  That 
was  old  man  Green's  idea  of  supporting  officers.  But 
you  wait  a  bit ;  the  cream's  coming.  We  made  Mel- 
bourne right  enough,  and  the  old  man  said  :  *Mr.  Nares, 
you  and  me  don't  draw  together.  You're  a  first-rate 
seaman,  no  mistake  of  that ;  but  you're  the  most  dis- 
agreeable man  I  ever  sailed  with ;  and  your  language  and 
your  conduct  to  the  crew  I  cannot  stomach.  I  guess 
we'll  separate.'    I  didn't  care  about  the  berth,  you  may 


254  THE   WRECKER. 

be  sure ;  but  I  felt  kind  of  mean ;  and  if  be  made  one 
kind  of  stink,  I  thought  I  could  make  another.  So  I  said 
I  would  go  ashore  and  see  how  things  stood ;  went,  found 
I  was  all  right,  and  came  aboard  again  on  the  top  rail.  — 
'  Are  you  getting  your  traps  together,  Mr.  Nares  ? '  says 
the  old  man.  — '  No,'  says  I ;  '  I  don't  know  as  we'll  sep- 
arate much  before  'Frisco ;  at  least,'  I  said,  '  it's  a  point 
for  your  consideration.  I'm  very  willing  to  say  good-by 
to  the  Maria,  but  I  don't  know  whether  you'll  care  to 
start  me  out  with  three  months'  wages.'  He  got  his 
money-box  right  away.  *My  son,'  says  he,  'I  think  it 
cheap  at  the  money.'     He  had  me  there/' 

It  was  a  singular  tale  for  a  man  to  tell  of  himself; 
above  all,  in  the  midst  of  our  discussion ;  but  it  was 
quite  in  character  for  Nares.  I  never  made  a  good  hit 
in  our  disputes,  I  never  justly  resented  any  act  or 
speech  of  his,  but  what  I  found  it  long  after  carefully 
posted  in  his  day-book  and  reckoned  (here  was  the  man's 
oddity)  to  my  credit.  It  was  the  same  with  his  father, 
whom  he  had  hated ;  he  would  give  a  sketch  of  the  old 
fellow,  frank  and  credible,  and  yet  so  honestly  touched 
that  it  was  charming.  I  have  never  met  a  man  so 
strangely  constituted:  to  possess  a  reason  of  the  most 
equal  justice,  to  have  his  nerves  at  the  same  time  quiver- 
ing with  petty  spite,  and  to  act  upon  the  nerves  and  not 
the  reason. 

A  kindred  wonder  in  my  eyes  was  the  nature  of  his 
courage.     There  was  never  a  braver  man :  he  went  out 


THE   "NORAH   CREINA."  255 

to  welcome  danger ;  an  emergency  (came  it  never  so  sud- 
den) strung  him  like  a  tonic.  And  yet,  upon  the  other 
hand,  I  have  known  none  so  nervous,  so  oppressed  with 
possibilities,  looking  upon  the  world  at  large,  and  the 
life  of  a  sailor  in  particular,  with  so  constant  and  hag- 
gard a  consideration  of  the  ugly  chances.  All  his  cour- 
age was  in  blood,  not  merely  cold,  but  icy  with  reasoned 
apprehension.  He  would  lay  our  little  craft  rail  under, 
and  "  hang  on "  in  a  squall,  until  I  gave  myself  up  for 
lost,  and  the  men  were  rushing  to  their  stations  of  their 
own  accord.  "  There,"  he  would  say,  "  I  giiess  there's 
not  a  man  on  board  would  have  hung  on  as  long  as  I  did 
that  time ;  they'll  have  to  give  up  thinking  me  no 
schooner  sailor.  I  guess  I  can  shave  just  as  near  cap- 
sizing as  any  other  captain  of  this  vessel,  drunk  or  sober." 
And  then  he  would  fall  to  repining  and  wishing  himself 
well  out  of  the  enterprise,  and  dilate  on  the  peril  of  the 
seas,  the  particular  dangers  of  the  schooner  rig,  which  he 
abhorred,  the  various  ways  in  which  we  might  go  to  the 
bottom,  and  the  prodigious  fleet  of  ships  that  have  sailed 
out  in  the  course  of  history,  dwindled  from  the  eyes  of 
watchers,  and  returned  no  more.  "Well,"  he  would 
wind  up,  "I  guess  it  don't  much  matter.  I  can't  see 
what  any  one  wants  to  live  for,  anyway.  If  I  could  get 
into  some  one  else's  apple-tree,  and  be  about  twelve  years 
old,  and  just  stick  the  way  I  was,  eating  stolen  apples, 
I  won't  say.  But  there's  no  sense  to  this  grown-up  busi- 
ness —  sailorising,  politics,  the  piety  mill,  and  all  the  rest 


256  THE   WRECKER. 

of  it.  Good  clean  drowning  is  good  enough  for  me." 
It  is  hard  to  imagine  any  more  depressing  talk  for  a  poor 
landsman  on  a  dirty  night ;  it  is  hard  to  imagine  au}^- 
thing  less  sailor-like  (as  sailors  are  supposed  to  be  and 
generally  are)  than  this  persistent  harping  on  the  minor. 

But  I  was  to  see  more  of  the  man's  gloomy  constancy 
ere  the  cruise  was  at  an  end. 

On  the  morning  of  the  seventeenth  day  I  came  on  deck, 
to  find  the  schooner  under  double  reefs,  and  flying  rather 
wild  before  a  heavy  run  of  sea.  Snoring  trades  and 
humming  sails  had  been  our  portion  hitherto.  We  were 
already  nearing  the  island.  My  restrained  excitement 
had  begun  again  to  overmaster  me ;  and  for  some  time 
my  only  book  had  been  the  patent  log  that  trailed  over 
the  talfrail,  and  my  chief  interest  the  daily  observation 
and  our  caterpillar  progress  across  the  chart.  My  first 
glance,  which  was  at  the  compass,  and  my  second,  which 
was  at  the  log,  were  all  that  I  could  wish.  We  lay  our 
course;  we  had  been  doing  over  eight  since  nine  the 
night  before ;  and  I  drew  a  heavy  breath  of  satisfaction. 
And  then  I  know  not  what  odd  and  wintry  appearance 
of  the  sea  and  sky  knocked  suddenly  at  my  heart.  I 
observed  the  schooner  to  look  more  than  usiially  small, 
the  men  silent  and  studious  of  the  weather.  Nares,  in 
one  of  his  rusty  humours,  afforded  me  no  shadow  of  a 
morning  salutation.  He,  too,  seemed  to  observe  the 
behaviour  of  the  ship  with  an  intent  and  anxious  scru- 
tiny.    What   I   liked   still   less,  Johnson   himself   was 


THE   "NORAH   CREINA.'"  257 

at  the  wheel,  which  he  span  busily,  often  with  a  visible 
effort ;  and  as  the  seas  ranged  up  behind  us,  black  and 
imminent,  he  kept  casting  behind  him  eyes  of  animal 
swiftness,  and  drawing  in  his  neck  between  his  shoul- 
ders, like  a  man  dodging  a  blow.  From  these  signs,  I 
gathered  that  all  was  not  exactly  for  the  best ;  and 
I  would  have  given  a  good  handful  of  dollars  for  a  plain 
answer  to  the  questions  which  I  dared  not  put.  Had  I 
dared,  with  the  present  danger  signal  in  the  captain's 
face,  I  should  only  have  been  reminded  of  my  position 
as  supercargo  —  an  office  never  touched  upon  in  kind- 
ness —  and  advised,  in  a  very  indigestible  manner,  to  go 
below.  There  was  nothing  for  it,  therefore,  but  to  enter- 
tain my  vague  apprehensions  as  best  I  should  be  able, 
until  it  pleased  the  captain  to  enlighten  me  of  his  own 
accord.  This  he  did  sooner  than  I  had  expected;  as 
soon,  indeed,  as  the  Chinaman  had  summoned  us  to 
breakfast,  and  we  sat  face  to  face  across  the  narrow 
board. 

"See  here,  Mr.  Dodd,"  he  began,  looking  at  me 
rather  queerly,  "here  is  a  business  point  arisen.  This 
sea's  been  running  up  for  the  last  two  days,  and  now  it's 
too  high  for  comfort.  The  glass  is  falling,  the  wind  is 
breezing  up,  and  I  won't  say  but  what  there's  dirt  in  it. 
If  I  lay  her  to,  we  may  have  to  ride  out  a  gale  of  wind 
and  drift  God  knows  where  —  on  these  French  Frigate 
Shoals,  for  instance.  If  I  keep  her  as  she  goes,  we'll 
make  that  island  to-morrow  afternoon,  and  have  the  lee 


258  THE   WEECKER. 

of  it  to  lie  under,  if  we  can't  make  out  to  run  in.  The 
point  you  have  to  figure  on,  is  whether  you'll  take  the 
big  chances  of  that  Captain  Trent  making  the  place 
before  you,  or  take  the  risk  of  something  happening. 
I'm  to  run  this  ship  to  your  satisfaction,"  he  added, 
with  an  ugly  sneer.  "Well,  here's  a  point  for  the 
supercargo." 

"Captain,"  I  returned,  with  my  heart  in  my  mouth, 
"risk  is  better  than  certain  failure." 

"Life  is  all  risk,  Mr,  Dodd,"  he  remarked.  "But 
there's  one  thing:  it's  now  or  never;  in  half  an  hour, 
Archdeacon  Gabriel  couldn't  lay  her  to,  if  he  came  down 
stairs  on  purpose." 

"All  right,"  said  I.     "Let's  run." 

"  Eun  goes,"  said  he ;  and  with  that  he  fell  to  break- 
fast, and  passed  half  an  hour  in  stowing  away  pie  and 
devoutly  wishing  himself  back  in  San  Francisco. 

When  we  came  on  deck  again,  he  took  the  wheel  from 
Johnson  —  it  appears  they  could  trust  none  among  the 
hands  —  and  I  stood  close  beside  him,  feeling  safe  in 
this  proximity,  and  tasting  a  fearful  joy  from  our  sur- 
roundings and  the  consciousness  of  ^v  decision.  The 
breeze  had  already  risen,  and  as  it  tore  over  our  heads, 
it  uttered  at  times  a  long  hooting  note  that  sent  my 
heart  into  my  boots.  The  sea  pursued  us  without 
remission,  leaping  to  the  assault  of  the  low  rail.  The 
quarter-deck  was  all  awash,  and  we  must  close  the  com- 
panion doors. 


THE   "NORAII   CREINA."  259 

"And  all  this,  if  you  please,  for  Mr.  Pinkerton's 
dollars ! "  the  captain  suddenly  exclaimed.  "  There's 
many  a  fine  fellow  gone  under,  Mr.  Dodd,  because  of 
drivers  like  your  friend.  What  do  they  care  for  a  ship 
or  two  ?  Insured,  I  guess.  What  do  they  care  for 
sailors'  lives  alongside  of  a  few  thousand  dollars  ? 
What  they  want  is  speed  between  ports,  and  a  damned 
fool  of  a  captain  that'll  drive  a  ship  under  as  I'm  doing 
this  one.  You  can  put  in  the  morning,  asking  why  I 
do  it." 

I  sheered  off  to  another  part  of  the  vessel  as  fast  as 
civility  permitted.  This  was  not  at  all  the  talk  that  I 
desired,  nor  was  the  train  of  reflection  which  it  started 
anyway  welcome.  Here  I  was,  running  some  hazard  of 
my  life,  and  perilling  the  lives  of  seven  others ;  exactly 
for  what  end,  I  was  now  at  liberty  to  ask  myself.  For 
a  very  large  amount  of  a  very  deadly  poison,  was  the 
obvious  answer;  and  I  thought  if  all  tales  were  true, 
and  I  were  soon  to  be  subjected  to  cross-examination 
at  the  bar  of  Eternal  Justice,  it  was  one  which  would 
not  increase  my  popularity  with  the  court.  "Well, 
never  mind,  Jim,"  thought  I.     "  I'm  doing  it  for  you." 

Before  eleven,  a  third  reef  was  taken  in  the  mainsail; 
and  Johnson  filled  the  cabin  with  a  storm-sail  of  No. 
1  duck  and  sat  cross-legged  on  the  streaming  floor, 
vigorously  putting  it  to  rights  with  a  couple  of  the 
hands.  By  dinner  I  had  fled  the  deck,  and  sat  in  the 
bench  corner,  giddy,  dumb,  and  stupefied  with  terror. 


260  THE  WRECKER. 

The  frightened  leaps  of  the  poor  Norah  Creina,  spank- 
ing like  a  stag  for  bare  existence,  bruised  me  between 
the  table  and  the  berths.  Overhead,  the  wild  huntsman 
of  the  storm  passed  continuously  in  one  blare  of  mingled 
noises  ;  screaming  wind,  straining  timber,  lashing  rope's 
end,  pounding  block  and  bursting  sea  contributed;  and  I 
could  have  thought  there  was  at  times  another,  a  more 
piercing,  a  more  human  note,  that  dominated  all,  like  the 
wailing  of  an  angel ;  I  could  have  thought  I  knew  the 
angel's  name,  and  that  his  wings  were  black.  It  seemed 
incredible  that  any  creature  of  man's  art  could  long 
endure  the  barbarous  mishandling  of  the  seas,  kicked  as 
the  schooner  was  from  mountain  side  to  mountain  side, 
beaten  and  blown  upon  and  wrenched  in  every  joint  and 
sinew,  like  a  child  upon  the  rack.  There  was  not  a 
plank  of  her  that  did  not  cry  aloud  for  mercy ;  and  as 
she  continued  to  hold  together,  I  became  conscious  of  a 
growing  sympathy  with  her  endeavours,  a  growing  admi- 
ration for  her  gallant  staunchness,  that  amused  and  at 
times  obliterated  my  terrors  for  myself.  God  bless 
every  man  that  swung  a  mallet  on  that  tiny  and  strong 
hull !  It  was  not  for  wages  only  that  he  laboured,  but 
to  save  men's  lives. 

All  the  rest  of  the  day,  and  all  the  following  night,  I 
sat  in  the  corner  or  lay  wakeful  in  my  bunk ;  and  it  was 
only  with  the  return  of  morning  that  a  new  phase  of  my 
alarms  drove  me  once  more  on  deck.  A  gloomier  interval 
I  never  passed.     Johnson  and  Nares  steadily  relieved 


THE   "NOKAH   CREINA."  2G1 

eacli  other  at  the  wheel  and  came  below.  The  first 
glance  of  each  was  at  the  glass,  which  he  repeatedly 
knuckled  and  frowned  upon ;  for  it  was  sagging  lower  all 
the  time.  Then,  if  Johnson  were  the  visitor,  he  would 
pick  a  snack  out  of  the  cupboard,  and  stand,  braced 
against  the  table,  eating  it,  and  perhaps  obliging  me  with 
a  word  or  two  of  his  hee-haw  conversation :  how  it  was 
"  a  son  of  a  gun  of  a  cold  night  on  deck,  Mr.  Dodd " 
(with  a  grin)  ;  how  "it  wasn't  no  night  for  panjammers, 
he  could  tell  me " :  having  transacted  all  which,  he 
would  throw  himself  down  in  his  bunk  and  sleep  his  two 
hours  with  compunction.  But  the  captain  neither  ate 
nor  slept.  "  You  there,  Mr.  Dodd  ?  "  he  would  say,  after 
the  obligatory  visit  to  the  glass.  "  Well,  my  sou,  we're 
one  hundred  and  four  miles"  (or  whatever  it  was)  "off 
the  island,  and  scudding  for  all  we're  worth.  We'll 
make  it  to-morrow  about  four,  or  not,  as  the  case  may  be. 
That's  the  news.  And  now,  Mr.  Dodd,  I've  stretched 
a  point  for  you;  you  can  see  I'm  dead  tired;  so  just  you 
stretch  away  back  to  your  bunk  again."  And  with  this 
attempt  at  geniality,  his  teeth  would  settle  hard  down 
on  his  cigar,  and  he  would  pass  his  spell  below  staring 
and  blinking  at  the  cabin  lamp  through  a  cloud  of 
tobacco  smoke.  He  has  told  me  since  that  he  was 
happy,  which  I  should  never  have  divined.  "  You  see," 
he  said,  "  the  wind  we  had  was  never  anything  out  of 
the  way;  but  the  sea  was  really  nasty,  the  schooner 
wanted  a  lot  of  humouring,  and  it  was  clear  from  the 


262  THE  WRECKER. 

glass  that  we  were  close  to  some  dirt.  We  might  be 
running  out  of  it  or  we  might  be  running  right  crack 
into  it.  Well,  there's  always  something  sublime  about  a 
big  deal  like  that ;  and  it  kind  of  raises  a  man  in  his 
own  liking.     We're  a  queer  kind  of  beasts,  Mr.  Dodd." 

The  morning  broke  with  sinister  brightness;  the  air 
alarmingly  transparent,  the  sky  pure,  the  rim  of  the 
horizon  clear  and  strong  against  the  heavens.  The  wind 
and  the  wild  seas,  now  vastly  swollen,  indefatigably 
hunted  us.  I  stood  on  deck,  choking  with  fear;  I 
seemed  to  lose  all  power  upon  my  limbs ;  my  knees  were 
as  paper  when  she  plunged  into  the  murderous  valleys ; 
my  heart  collapsed  when  some  black  mountain  fell  in 
avalanche  beside  her  counter,  and  the  water,  that  was 
more  than  spray,  swept  round  my  ankles  like  a  torrent. 
I  was  conscious  of  but  one  strong  desire,  to  bear  myself 
decently  in  my  terrors,  and  whatever  should  happen  to 
my  life,  preserve  my  character :  as  the  captain  said,  we 
are  a  queer  kind  of  beasts.  Breakfast  time  came,  and  T 
made  shift  to  swallow  some  hot  tea.  Then  I  must 
stagger  below  to  take  the  time,  reading  the  chronometer 
with  dizzy  eyes,  and  marvelling  the  while  what  value 
there  could  be  in  observations  taken  in  a  ship  launched 
(as  ours  then  was)  like  a  missile  among  flying  seas. 
The  forenoon  dragged  on  in  a  grinding  monotony  of 
peril ;  every  spoke  of  the  wheel  a  rash,  but  an  obliged 
experiment  —  rash  as  a  forlorn  hope,  needful  as  the  leap 
that  lands  a  fireman  from  a  burning  staircase.     Noon 


THE    "NORAH   CREINA."  263 

was  made  ;  the  captain  dined  on  his  day's  work,  and  I 
on  watching  him ;  and  our  place  was  entered  on  the 
chart  with  a  meticulous  precision  which  seemed  to  me 
half  pitiful  and  half  absurd,  since  the  next  eye  to  behold 
that  sheet  of  paper  might  be  the  eye  of  an  exploring 
fish.  One  o'clock  came,  then  two  ;  the  captain  gloomed 
and  chafed,  as  he  held  to  the  coaming  of  the  house,  and 
if  ever  I  saw  dormant  murder  in  man's  eye,  it  was  in  his. 
God  help  the  hand  that  should  have  disobeyed  him. 

Of  a  sudden,  he  turned  towards  the  mate,  who  was 
doing  his  trick  at  the  wheel. 

"Two  points  on  the  port  bow,"  I  heard  him  say. 
And  he  took  the  wheel  himself. 

Johnson  nodded,  wiped  his  eyes  with  the  back  of  his 
wet  hand,  watched  a  chance  as  the  vessel  lunged  up  hill, 
and  got  to  the  main  rigging,  where  he  swarmed  aloft. 
Up  and  up,  I  watched  him  go,  hanging  on  at  every  ugly 
plunge,  gaining  with  every  lull  of  the  schooner's  move- 
ment, until,  clambering  into  the  cross-trees  and  clinging 
with  one  arm  around  the  masts',  I  could  see  him  take  one 
comprehensive  sweep  of  the  southwesterly  horizon.  The 
next  moment,  he  had  slid  down  the  backstay  and  stood 
on  deck,  with  a  grin,  a  nod,  and  a  gesture  of  the  fiuger 
that  said,  "yes";  the  next  again,  and  he  was  back  sweat- 
ing and  squirming  at  the  wheel,  his  tired  face  streaming 
and  smiling,  and  his  hair  and  the  rags  and  corners  of  his 
clothes  lashing  round  him  in  the  wind. 

Nares  went  below,  fetched  up  liis  binocidar,  and  fell 


264  THE   WRECKER. 

into  a  silent  perusal  of  the  sea-line;  I  also,  with  my 
unaided  eyesight.  Little  by  little,  in  that  white  waste 
of  water,  I  began  to  make  out  a  quarter  where  the 
whiteness  appeared  more  condensed :  the  sky  above  was 
whitish  likewise,  and  misty  like  a  squall ;  and  little  by 
little  there  thrilled  upon  my  ears  a  note  deeper  and  more 
terrible  than  the  yelling  of  the  gale  —  the  long,  thunder- 
ing roll  of  breakers.  Nares  wiped  his  night  glass  on  his 
sleeve  and  passed  it  to  me,  motioning,  as  he  did  so,  with 
his  hand.  An  endless  wilderness  of  ranging  billows  came 
and  went  and  danced  in  the  circle  of  the  glass ;  now 
and  then  a  pale  corner  of  sky,  or  the  strong  line  of  the 
horizon  rugged  with  the  heads  of  waves ;  and  then  of 
a  sudden  —  come  and  gone  ere  I  could  fix  it,  with  a 
swallow's  swiftness  —  one  glimpse  of  what  we  had  come 
so  far  and  paid  so  dear  to  see :  the  masts  and  rigging  of 
a  brig  pencilled  on  heaven,  with  an  ensign  streaming  at 
the  main,  and  the  ragged  ribbons  of  a  topsail  thrashing 
from  the  yard.  Again  and  again,  with  toilful  searching, 
I  recalled  that  apparition.  There  was  no  sign  of  any 
land ;  the  wreck  stood  between  sea  and  sky,  a  thing  the 
most  isolated  I  had  ever  viewed ;  but  as  we  drew  nearer, 
I  perceived  her  to  be  defended  by  a  line  of  breakers 
which  drew  off  on  either  hand  and  marked,  indeed,  the 
nearest  segment  of  the  reef.  Heavy  spray  hung  over 
them  like  a  smoke,  some  hundred  feet  into  the  air ;  and 
the  sound  of  their  consecutive  explosions  rolled  like  a 
cannonade. 


THE   ISLAND   AND   THE    WRECK.  265 

In  half  an  hour  we  were  close  in ;  for  perhaps  as  long 
again,  we  skirted  that  formidable  barrier  towards  its 
farther  side ;  and  presently  the  sea  began  insensibly  to 
moderate  and  the  ship  to  go  more  sweetly.  We  had 
gained  the  lee  of  the  island  as  (for  form's  sake)  I  may 
call  that  ring  of  foam  and  haze  and  thunder;  and 
shaking  out  a  reef,  wore  ship  and  headed  for  the  pas- 
sage. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

THE    ISLAND    AND    THE    WRECK. 

All  hands  were  filled  with  joy.  It  was  betrayed  in 
their  alacrity  and  easy  faces :  Johnson  smiling  broadly 
at  the  wheel,  Nares  studying  the  sketch  chart  of  the 
island  with  an  eye  at  peace,  and  the  hands  clustered 
forward,  eagerly  talking  and  pointing :  so  manifest  was 
our  escape,  so  wonderful  the  attraction  of  a  single  foot 
of  earth  after  so  many  suns  had  set  and  risen  on  an 
empty  sea.     To  add  to  the  relief,  besides,   by  one  of 


266  THE   WRECKER. 

those  malicious  coincidences  which  suggest  for  fate  the 
image  of  an  underbred  and  grinning  schoolboy,  we  had 
no  sooner  worn  ship  than  the  wind  began  to  abate. 

For  myself,  however,  I  did  but  exchange  anxieties.  I 
was  no  sooner  out  of  one  fear  than  I  fell  upon  another ; 
no  sooner  secure  that  I  should  myself  make  the  intended 
haven,  than  I  began  to  be  convinced  that  Trent  was 
there  before  me.  I  climbed  into  the  rigging,  stood 
on  the  board,  and  eagerly  scanned  that  ring  of  coral 
reef  and  bursting  breaker,  and  the  blue  lagoon  which 
they  enclosed.  The  two  islets  within  began  to  show 
plainly  —  Middle  Brooks  and  Lower  Brooks  Island,  the 
Directory  named  them :  two  low,  bush-covered,  rolling 
strips  of  sand,  each  with  glittering  beaches,  each  per- 
haps a  mile  or  a  mile  and  a  half  in  length,  running  east 
and  west,  and  divided  by  a  narrow  channel.  Over 
these,  innumerable  as  maggots,  there  hovered,  chattered, 
screamed  and  clanged,  millions  of  twinkling  sea-birds : 
white  and  black;  the  black  by  far  the  largest.  With 
singular  scintillations,  this  vortex  of  winged  life  swayed 
to  and  fro  in  the  strong  sunshine,  whirled  continually 
through  itself,  and  would  now  and  again  burst  asunder 
and  scatter  as  wide  as  the  lagoon :  so  that  I  was  irresis- 
tibly reminded  of  what  I  had  read  of  nebular  convulsions. 
A  thin  cloud  overspread  the  area  of  the  reef  and  the 
adjacent  sea — the  dust,  as  I  could  not  but  fancy,  of 
earlier  explosions.  And  a  little  apart,  there  was  yet 
another  focus  of  centrifugal  and  centripetal  flight,  where, 


THE   ISLAND   AND   THE  WRECK.  267 

hard  by  tlie  deafening  line  of  breakers,  her  sails  (all  but 
the  tattered  topsail)  snugly  furled  down,  and  the  red 
rag  that  marks  Old  England  on  the  seas  beating,  union 
down,  at  the  main  —  the  Flying  Scud,  the  fruit  of  so 
many  toilers,  a  recollection  in  so  many  lives  of  men, 
whose  tall  spars  had  been  mirrored  in  the  remotest 
corners  of  the  sea  —  lay  stationary  at  last  and  forever, 
in  the  first  stage  of  naval  dissolution.  Towards  her,  the 
taut  Norah  Creina,  vulture-wise,  wriggled  to  windward: 
come  from  so  far  to  pick  her  bones.  And,  look  as  I 
pleased,  there  was  no  other  presence  of  man  or  of  man's 
handiwork ;  no  Honolulu  schooner  lay  there  crowded 
with  armed  rivals,  no  smoke  rose  from  the  fire  at 
which  I  fancied  Trent  cooking  a  meal  of  sea-birds.  It 
seemed,  after  all,  we  were  in  time,  and  I  drew  a  mighty 
breath, 

I  had  not  arrived  at  this  reviving  certainty  before  the 
breakers  were  already  close  aboard,  the  leadsman  at  his 
station,  and  the  captain  posted  in  the  fore  cross-trees  to 
con  us  through  the  coral  lumps  of  the  lagoon.  All  cir- 
cumstances were  in  our  favour,  the  light  behind,  the 
sun  low,  the  wind  still  fresh  and  steady,  and  the  tide 
about  the  turn.  A  moment  later  we  shot  at  racing 
speed  betwixt  two  pier  heads  of  broken  water ;  the  lead 
began  to  be  cast,  the  captain  to  bawl  down  his  anxious 
directions,  the  schooner  to  tack  and  dodge  among  the 
scattered  dangers  of  the  lagoon ;  and  at  one  bell  in  the 
first  dog  watch,  we  had  come  to  our  anchor  off  the  north- 


268  THE   WRECKER. 

east  end  of  Middle  Brooks  Island,  in  five  fathoms  water. 
The  sails  were  gasketted  and  covered,  the  boats  emptied 
of  the  miscellaneous  stores  and  odds  and  ends  of  sear 
furniture,  that  accumulate  in  the  course  of  a  voyage, 
the  kedge  sent  ashore,  and  the  decks  tidied  down :  a 
good  three-quarters  of  an  hour's  work,  during  which  I 
raged  about  the  deck  like  a  man  with  a  strong  tooth- 
ache. The  transition  from  the  wild  sea  to  the  compara- 
tive immobility  of  the  lagoon  had  wrought  strange  dis- 
tress among  my  nerves :  I  could  not  hold  still  whether 
in  hand  or  foot ;  the  slowness  of  the  men,  tired  as  dogs 
after  our  rough  experience  outside,  irritated  me  like 
something  personal ;  and  the  irrational  screaming  of  the 
sea-birds  saddened  me  like  a  dirge.  It  was  a  relief 
when,  with  Nares,  and  a  couple  of  hands,  I  might  drop 
into  the  boat  and  move  off  at  last  for  the  Flying  Scud. 

"  She  looks  kind  of  pitiful,  don't  she  ?  "  observed  the 
captain,  nodding  towards  the  wreck,  from  which  we  were 
separated  by  some  half  a  mile.  "  Looks  as  if  she  didn't 
like  her  berth,  and  Captain  Trent  had  used  her  badly. 
Give  her  ginger,  boys ! "  he  added  to  the  hands,  "  and 
you  can  all  have  shore  liberty  to-night  to  see  the  birds 
and  paint  the  town  red." 

We  all  laughed  at  the  pleasantry,  and  the  boat  skimmed 
the  faster  over  the  rippling  face  of  the  lagoon.  The 
Flying  Scud  would  have  seemed  small  enough  beside  the 
wharves   of  San  Francisco,   but   she   was   some  thrice 


THE   ISLAND   AND   THE   WRECK.  2G9 

tlie  size  of  the  Norah  Creina,  which  had  been  so  long 
our  continent ;  and  as  we  craned  vip  at  her  wall-sides, 
she  impressed  us  with  a  mountain  magnitude.  She  lay 
head  to  the  reef,  where  the  huge  blue  wall  of  the  rollers 
was  forever  ranging  up  and  crumbling  down ;  and  to 
gain  her  starboard  side,  we  must  pass  below  the  stern. 
The  rudder  was  hard  aport,  and  we  could  read  the  legend: 

FLYING   SCUD 
HULL 

On  the  other  side,  about  the  break  of  the  poop,  some 
half  a  fathom  of  rope  ladder  trailed  over  the  rail,  and 
by  this  we  made  our  entrance. 

She  was  a  roomy  ship  inside,  with  a  raised  poop 
standing  some  three  feet  higher  than  the  deck,  and 
a  small  forAvard  house,  for  the  men's  bunks  and  the 
galley,  just  abaft  the  foremast.  There  was  one  boat 
on  the  house,  and  another  and  larger  one,  in  beds  on 
deck,  on  either  hand  of  it.  She  had  been  painted 
white,  with  tropical  economy,  outside  and  in ;  and  we 
found,  later  on,  that  the  stanchions  of  the  rail,  hoops 
of  the  scuttle  but,  etc.,  were  picked  out  with  green. 
At  that  time,  however,  when  we  first  stepped  aboard, 
all  was  hidden  under  the  droppings  of  innumerable  sea- 
birds. 


270  THE  WRECKER. 

The  birds  themselves  gyrated  and  screamed  mean- 
while among  the  rigging;  and  when  we  looked  into  the 
galley,  their  outrush  drove  us  back.  Savage-looking  fowl 
they  were,  savagely  beaked,  and  some  of  the  black  ones 
great  as  eagles.  Half-buried  in  the  slush,  we  were  aware 
of  a  litter  of  kegs  in  the  waist ;  and  these,  on  being  some- 
what cleaned,  proved  to  be  water  beakers  and  quarter 
casks  of  mess  beef  with  some  colonial  brand,  doubt- 
less collected  there  before  the  Tempest  hove  in  sight, 
and  while  Trent  and  his  men  had  no  better  expectation 
than  to  strike  for  Honolulu  in  the  boats.  Nothing  else 
was  notable  on  deck,  save  where  the  loose  topsail  had 
played  some  havoc  with  the  rigging,  and  there  hung,  and 
swayed,  and  sang  in  the  declining  wind,  a  raffle  of 
intorted  cordage. 

With  a  shyness  that  was  almost  awe,  Kares  and  I 
descended  the  companion.  The  stair  turned  upon  itself 
and  landed  us  just  forward  of  a  thwart-ship  bulkhead 
that  cut  the  poop  in  two.  The  fore  part  formed  a 
kind  of  miscellaneous  storeroom,  with  a  double-bunked 
division  for  the  cook  (as  Nares  supposed)  and  second 
mate.  The  after  part  contained,  in  the  midst,  the  main 
cabin,  running  in  a  kind  of  bow  into  the  curvature  of 
the  stern;  on  the  port  side,  a  pantry  opening  forward 
and  a  stateroom  for  the  mate;  and  on  the  starboard, 
the  captain's  berth  and  water-closet.  Into  these  we  did 
but  glance :  the  main  cabin  holding  us.  It  was  dark,  for 
the  sea-birds  had  obscured  the  skylight  with  their  drop- 


SHE  LAY   HEAD  TO  THE  HEEF,   WHEKE  THE   HlllE   BEIE  WALT,  Of  THE  HOEl.EUS   WA^ 
FOREVER  HANGING   UP  AND  CRUMBLING    DOWN. 


THE  ISLAND   AND   THE   WRECK.  271 

pings ;  it  smelt  rank  and  fusty  ;  and  it  A\\as  beset  with  a 
loud  swarm  of  flies  that  beat  continually  in  our  faces. 
Supposing  them  close  attendants  upon  man  and  his 
broken  meat,  I  marvelled  how  they  had  found  their  way 
to  Midway  reef;  it  was  sure  at  least  some  vessel  must 
have  brought  them,  and  that  long  ago,  for  they  had  mul- 
tiplied exceedingly.  Part  of  the  floor  was  strewn  with 
a  confusion  of  clothes,  books,  nautical  instruments,  odds 
and  ends  of  finery,  and  such  trash  as  might  be  expected 
from  the  turning  out  of  several  seaman's  chests,  upon  a 
sudden  emergency  and  after  a  long  cruise.  It  was 
strange  in  that  dim  cabin,  quivering  with  the  near 
thunder  of  the  breakers  and  pierced  with  the  scream- 
ing of  the  fowls,  to  turn  over  so  many  things  that 
other  men  had  coveted,  and  prized,  and  worn  on  their 
warm  bodies  —  frayed  old  underclothing,  pyjamas  of 
strange  design,  duck  suits  in  every  stage  of  rustiness, 
oil  skins,  pilot  coats,  bottles  of  scent,  embroidered 
shirts,  jackets  of  Ponjee  silk  —  clothes  for  the  night 
watch  at  sea  or  the  day  ashore  in  the  hotel  verandah ; 
and  mingled  among  these,  books,  cigars,  fancy  pipes, 
quantities  of  tobacco,  many  keys,  a  rusty  pistol,  and  a 
sprinkling  of  cheap  curiosities  —  Benares  brass,  Chinese 
jars  and  pictures,  and  bottles  of  odd  shells  in  cotton, 
each  designed  no  doubt  for  somebody  at  home  —  perhaj^s 
in  Hull,  of  which  Trent  had  been  a  native  and  his  ship 
a  citizen. 


272  THE  WRECKER. 

Thence  we  turned  our  attention  to  the  table,  which 
stood  spread,  as  if  for  a  meal,  with  stout  ship's  crockery 
and  the  remains  of  food  —  a  pot  of  marmalade,  dregs 
of  coffee  in  the  mugs,  unrecognisable  remains  of  foods, 
bread,  some  toast,  and  a  tin  of  condensed  milk.  The 
table-cloth,  originally  of  a  red  colour,  was  stained  a 
dark  brown  at  the  captain's  end,  apparently  with  coffee ; 
at  the  other  end,  it  had  been  folded  back,  and  a  pen 
and  ink-pot  stood  on  the  bare  table.  Stools  were 
here  and  there  about  the  table,  irregularly  placed,  as 
though  the  meal  had  been  finished  and  the  men  smok- 
ing and  chatting;  and  one  of  the  stools  lay  on  the 
floor,  broken. 

"  See !  they  were  writing  up  the  log,"  said  Nares, 
pointing  to  the  ink-bottle.  "  Caught  napping,  as  usual. 
I  wonder  if  there  ever  was  a  captain  yet,  that  lost 
a  ship  with  his  log-book  up  to  date  ?  He  generally 
has  about  a  month  to  fill  up  on  a  clean  break,  like 
Charles  Dickens  and  his  serial  no^'^ls.  — What  a  regu- 
lar, lime-juicer  spread ! "  he  added  contemptuously. 
"  Marmalade  —  and  toast  for  the  old  man  !  Kasty, 
slovenly  pigs ! " 

There  was  something  in  this  criticism  of  the  absent 
that  jarred  upon  my  feelings.  I  had  no  love  indeed  for 
Captain  Trent  or  any  of  his  vanished  gang;  but  the 
desertion  and  decay  of  this  once  habitable  cabin  struck 
me  hard:  the  death  of  man's  handiwork  is  melancholy 


THE   ISLAND   AND   THE   WIIECK,  273 

like  the  death  of  man  himself ;  and  I  was  impressed  with 
an  involuntary  and  irrational  sense  of  tragedy  in  my 
surroundings. 

"  This  sickens  me,"  I  said.  "  Let's  go  on  deck  and 
breathe." 

The  captain  nodded.  "  It  is  kind  of  lonely,  isn't  it  ?  " 
he  said.  "But  I  can't  go  up  till  I  get  the  code  signals. 
I  want  to  run  up  'Got  Left'  or  something,  just  to 
brighten  up  this  island  home.  Captain  Trent  hasn't 
been  here  yet,  but  he'll  drop  in  before  long  5  and  it'll 
cheer  him  up  to  see  a  signal  on  the  brig." 

"  Isn't  there  some  official  expression  we  could  use  ?  " 
I  asked,  vastly  taken  by  the  fancy.  " '  Sold  for  the 
benefit  of  the  underwriters  :  for  further  particulars, 
apply  to  J.  Pinkerton,  Montana  Block,  S.F.' " 

"Well,"  returned  Nares,  "I  won't  say  but  what  an 
old  navy  quartermaster  might  telegraph  all  that,  if  you 
gave  him  a  day  to  do  it  in  and  a  pound  of  tobacco  for 
himself.  But  it's  above  my  register.  I  must  try  some- 
thing short  and  sweet :  KB,  urgent  signal,  '  Heave  all 
aback ' ;  or  LM,  urgent,  '  The  berth  you're  now  in  is  not 
safe ' ;  or  what  do  you  say  to  PQH  ?  — '  Tell  my  owners 
the  ship  answers  remarkably  well.' " 

"  It's  premature,"  I  replied ;  "  but  it  seems  calculated 
to  give  pain  to  Trent.     PQH  for  me." 

The  flags  were  found  in  Trent's  cabin,  neatly  stored 
behind  a  lettered  grating ;  Nares  chose  what  he  required 


274  THE   WRECKER. 

and  (I  following)  returned  on  deck,  "where  the  sun  had 
already  dipped,  and  the  dusk  was  coming. 

"  Here  !  don't  touch  that,  you  fool ! "  shouted  the  cap- 
tain to  one  of  the  hands,  who  was  drinking  from  the 
scuttle  but.     "  That  water's  rotten ! " 

"Beg  pardon,  sir,"  replied  the  man.  "Tastes  quite 
sweet." 

"  Let  me  see,"  returned  Nares,  and  he  took  the  dipper 
and  held  it  to  his  lips.  "Yes,  it's  all  right,"  he  said. 
"Must  have  rotted  and  come  sweet  again.  Queer,  isn't 
it,  Mr.  Dodd  ?  Though  I've  known  the  same  on  a  Cape- 
Horner." 

There  was  something  in  his  intonation  that  made  me 
look  him  in  the  face ;  he  stood  a  little  on  tiptoe  to  look 
right  and  left  about  the  ship,  like  a  man  filled  with 
curiosity,  and  his  whole  expression  and  bearing  testified 
to  some  suppressed  excitement. 

"  You  don't  believe  what  you're  saying  ! "  I  broke  out. 

"  0,  I  don't  know  but  what  I  do  !  "  he  replied,  laying 
a  hand  upon  me  soothingly.  "The  thing's  very  possi- 
ble.    Only,  I'm  bothered  about  something  else." 

And  with  that  he  called  a  hand,  gave  him  the  code 
flags,  and  stepped  himself  to  the  main  signal  halliards, 
which  vibrated  under  the  weight  of  the  ensign  overhead. 
A  minute  later,  the  American  colours,  which  we  had 
brought  in  the  boat,  replaced  the  English  red,  and 
PQH  was  fluttering  at  the  fore. 

"  Now,  then,"  said  Nares,  who  had  watched  the  break- 


THE   ISLAND   AND   THE   WRECK.  275 

ing  out  of  his  signal  with  the  old-maidish  particularity 
of  an  American  sailor,  ''out  with  those  handspikes,  and 
let's  see  what  water  there  is  in  the  lagoon." 

The  bars  were  shoved  home ;  the  barbarous  cacophony 
of  the  clanking  pump  rose  in  the  waist ;  and  streams  of 
ill-smelling  water  gushed  on  deck  and  made  valleys  in 
the  slab  guano.  Nares  leaned  on  the  rail,  watching  the 
steady  stream  of  bilge  as  though  he  found  some  interest 
in  it. 

"  What  is  it  that  bothers  you  ?  "  I  asked. 

"Well,  I'll  tell  you  one  thing  shortly,"  he  replied. 
"  But  here's  another.  Do  you  see  those  boats  there,  one 
on  the  house  and  two  on  the  beds  ?  Well,  where  is  the 
boat  Trent  lowered  when  he  lost  the  hands  ?  " 

"  Got  it  aboard  again,  I  suppose,"  said  I. 

"  Well,  if  you'll  tell  me  why  ! "  returned  the  captain. 

"  Then  it  must  have  been  another,"  I  suggested. 

"  She  might  have  carried  another  on  the  main  hatch, 
I  won't  deny,"  admitted  Nares  ;  ''  but  I  can't  see  what 
she  wanted  with  it,  unless  it  was  for  the  old  man  to  go 
out  and  play  the  accordion  in,  on  moonlight  nights." 

"It  can't  much  matter,  anj-^^ay,"  I  reflected. 

"0,  I  don't  suppose  it  does,"  said  he,  glancing  over 
his  shoulder  at  the  spouting  of  the  scuppers. 

"  And  how  long  are  we  to  keep  up  this  racket  ? "  I 
asked.  "We're  simply  pumping  up  the  lagoon.  Cap- 
tain Trent  himself  said  she  had  settled  down  and  was 
full  forward." 


276  THE   WEECKER. 

"Did  he?"  said  Nares,  with  a  significant  dryness. 
And  almost  as  he  spoke  the  jjumps  sucked,  and  sucked 
again,  and  the  men  threw  down  their  bars.  "There, 
what  do  you  make  of  that  ?  "  he  asked.  "  Now,  I'll  tell, 
Mr.  Dodd,"  he  went  on,  lowering  his  voice,  but  not  shift- 
ing from  his  easy  attitude  against  the  rail,  "  this  ship  is 
as  sound  as  the  JSforah  Creina.  I  had  a  guess  of  it 
before  we  came  aboard,  and  now  I  know." 

"  It's  not  possible  ! "  I  cried.  "  What  do  you  make 
of  Trent  ?  " 

"  I  don't  make  anything  of  Trent ;  I  don't  know 
whether  he's  a  liar  or  only  an  old  wife  ;  I  simply  tell 
you  what's  the  fact,"  said  Nares.  "  And  I'll  tell  you 
somethijig  more,"  he  added:  "I've  taken  the  ground  my- 
self in  deep-water  vessels;  I  know  what  I'm  saying; 
and  I  say  that,  when  she  first  struck  and  before  she 
bedded  down,  seven  or  eight  hours'  work  would  have  got 
this  hooker  off,  and  there's  no  man  that  ever  went  two 
years  to  sea  but  must  have  known  it." 

I  could  only  utter  an  exclamation. 

Nares  raised  his  finger  warningly.  "Don't  let  them 
get  hold  of  it,"  said  he.  "  Think  what  you  like,  but  say 
nothing." 

I  glanced  round ;  the  dusk  was  melting  into  early 
night ;  the  twinkle  of  a  lantern  marked  the  schooner's 
position  in  the  distance ;  and  our  men,  free  from  further 
labour,  stood  grouped  together  in  the  waist,  their  faces 
illuminated  by  their  glowing  pipes. 


THE   ISLAND   AND   THE   WRECK.  277 

"  Why  didn't  Trent  get  her  off  ?  "  inquired  the  cap- 
tain. "  Why  did  he  want  to  buy  her  back  in  'Frisco  for 
these  fabulous  sums,  when  he  might  have  sailed  her  into 
the  bay  himself  ?  " 

"Perhaps  he  never  knew  her  value  until  then,"  I 
suggested. 

"  I  wish  we  knew  her  value  now,"  exclaimed  Xares. 
"  However,  I  don't  want  to  depress  you ;  I'm  sorry  for 
you,  Mr.  Dodd ;  I  know  how  bothering  it  must  be  to 
you ;  and  the  best  I  can  say's  this :  I  haven't  taken 
much  time  getting  down,  and  now  I'm  here  I  mean  to 
work  this  thing  in  proper  style.  I  just  want  to  put  your 
mind  at  rest :  you  shall  have  no  trouble  with  me." 

There  was  something  trusty  and  friendly  in  his  voice ; 
and  I  found  myself  gripping  hands  with  him,  in  that  hard, 
short  shake  that  means  so  much  with  English-speaking 
people. 

"  We'll  do,  old  fellow,"  said  he.  "  We've  shaken  down 
into  pretty  good  friends,  you  and  me ;  and  you  won't  find 
me  working  the  business  any  the  less  hard  for  that. 
And  now  let's  scoot  for  supper." 

After  supper,  with  the  idle  curiosity  of  the  seafarer, 
we  pulled  ashore  in  a  fine  moonlight,  and  landed  on 
Middle  Brook's  Island.  A  flat  beach  surrounded  it  upon 
all  sides ;  and  the  midst  was  occupied  by  a  thicket  of 
bushes,  the  highest  of  them  scarcely  five  feet  high,  in 
which  the  sea-fowl  lived.  Through  this  we  tried  at  first 
to  strike ;  but  it  were  easier  to  cross  Trafalgar  Square 


278  THE   WRECKER. 

upon  a  day  of  deinonstratiou  than  to  invade  these  haunts 
of  sleeping  sea-birds  ;  the  nests  sank,  and  the  eggs  burst 
under  footing ;  wings  beat  in  our  faces,  beaks  menaced 
our  eyes,  our  minds  were  confounded  with  the  screech- 
ing, and  the  coil  spread  over  the  island  and  mounted 
high  into  the  air. 

"I  guess  we'll  saunter  round  the  beach,"  said  Nares, 
when  we  had  made  good  our  retreat. 

The  hands  were  all  busy  after  sea-birds'  eggs,  so  there 
were  none  to  follow  us.  Our  way  lay  on  the  crisp  sand 
by  the  margin  of  the  water:  on  one  side,  the  thicket 
from  which  we  had  been  dislodged ;  on  the  other,  the 
face  of  the  lagoon,  barred  with  a  broad  path  of  moon- 
light, and  beyond  that,  the  line,  alternately  dark  and 
shining,  alternately  hove  high  and  fallen  prone,  of  the 
external  breakers.  The  beach  was  strewn  with  bits  of 
wreck  and  drift :  some  redwood  and  spruce  logs,  no  less 
than  two  lower  masts  of  junks,  and  the  stern-post  of  a 
European  ship  ;  all  of  which  we  looked  on  with  a  shade 
of  serious  concern,  speaking  of  the  dangers  of  the  sea 
and  the  hard  case  of  castaways.  In  this  sober  vein  we 
made  the  greater  part  of  the  circuit  of  the  island ;  had  a 
near  view  of  its  neighbour  from  the  southern  end ;  walked 
the  whole  length  of  the  westerly  side  in  the  shadow 
of  the  thicket ;  and  came  forth  again  into  the  moonlight 
at  the  opposite  extremity. 

On  our  right,  at  the  distance  of  about  half  a  mile,  the 
schooner  lay  faintly  heaving  at  her  anchors.     About  half 


THE   ISLAND   AND  THE   WRECK.  279 

a  mile  down  the  beach,  at  a  spot  still  hidden  from  us  by 
the  thicket,  an  upboiling  of  the  birds  showed  where  the 
men  were  still  (with  sailor-like  insatiability)  collecting 
eggs.  And  right  before  us,  in  a  small  indentation  of  the 
sand,  we  were  aware  of  a  boat  lying  high  and  dry,  and 
right  side  up. 

Nares  crouched  back  into  the  shadow  of  the  bushes. 

"  What  the  devil's  this  ?  "  he  whispered. 

"  Trent,"  I  suggested,  with  a  beating  heart. 

"We  were  damned  fools  to  come  ashore  unarmed," 
said  he.  "But  I've  got  to  know  where  I  stand."  In 
the  shadow,  his  face  looked  conspicuously  white,  and  his 
voice  betrayed  a  strong  excitement.  He  took  his  boat's 
whistle  from  his  pocket.  "  In  case  I  might  want  to 
play  a  tune,"  said  he,  grimly,  and  thrusting  it  between 
his  teeth,  advanced  into  the  moonlit  open ;  which  we 
crossed  with  rapid  steps,  looking  guiltily  about  us  as  we 
went.  Not  a  leaf  stirred ;  and  the  boat,  when  we  came 
up  to  it,  offered  convincing  proof  of  long  desertion. 
She  was  an  eighteen-foot  whaleboat  of  the  ordinary 
type,  equipped  with  oars  and  thole-pins.  Two  or  three 
quarter-casks  lay  on  the  bilge  amidships,  one  of  which 
must  have  been  broached,  and  now  stank  horribly ;  and 
these,  upon  examination,  proved  to  bear  the  same  Kew 
Zealand  brand  as  the  beef  on  board  the  Avreck. 

"  Well,  here's  the  boat,"  said  I.  "  Here's  one  of  your 
difficulties  cleared  away." 

"  H'm,"  said  he.  There  was  a  little  water  in  the  bilge, 
and  here  he  stooped  and  tasted  it. 


280  THE   WRECKER. 

"  Fresh,"  he  said.     "  Only  rain-water." 

''You  don't  object  to  that  ?  "  I  asked. 

"No,"  said  he, 

"  Well,  then,  what  ails  you  ?  "  I  cried. 

"In  plain  United  States,  Mr.  Dodd,"  he  returned,  "a 
whaleboat,  five  ash  sweeps,  and  a  barrel  of  stinking 
pork." 

"  Or,  in  other  words,  the  whole  thing  ?  "  I  commented. 

"Well,  it's  this  way,"  he  condescended  to  explain, 
"  I've  no  use  for  a  fourth  boat  at  all ;  but  a  boat  of  this 
model  tops  the  business,  I  don't  say  the  type's  not 
common  in  these  waters ;  it's  as  common  as  dirt ;  the 
traders  carry  them  for  surf-boats.  But  the  Flyhuj  Scud  ? 
a  deep-water  tramp,  who  was  lime-juicing  around  be- 
tween big  ports,  Calcutta  and  llangoon  and  'Frisco  and 
the  Canton  River  ?     No ;  I  don't  see  it," 

We  were  leaning  over  the  gunwale  of  the  boat  as  we 
spoke.  The  captain  stood  nearest  the  bow,  and  he  was 
idly  playing  with  the  trailing  painter,  when  a  thought 
arrested  him.  He  hauled  the  line  in  hand  over  hand, 
and  stared,  and  remained  staring,  at  the  end. 

"  Anything  wrong  v/ith  it  ?  "  I  asked. 

"Do  you  know,  Mr.  Dodd,"  said  he,  in  a  queer  voice, 
"  this  painter's  been  cut  ?  A  sailor  always  siezes  a 
rope's  end,  but  this  is  sliced  short  off  with  the  cold  steel. 
This  won't  do  at  all  for  the  men,"  he  added,  "Just 
stand  by  till  I  fix  it  up  moi-e  natural," 

"Any  guess  what  it  all  means  ?  "  I  asked. 


THE   CABIN    OF   THE    "FLYING    SCUD."  281 

"Well,  it  means  one  thing,"  said  lie.  *'It  means 
Trent  was  a  liar.  I  guess  the  story  of  the  Flying  Scud 
was  a  sight  more  j)icturesque  than  he  gave  out." 

Half  an  hour  later,  the  whaleboat  was  lying  astern  of 
the  Norah  Creina;  and  Nares  and  I  sought  our  bunks, 
silent  and  half  bewildered  by  our  late  discoveries. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

THE    CABIN    OF    THE    "FLYING   SCUD." 

The  sun  of  the  morrow  had  not  cleared  the  morning 
bank :  the  lake  of  the  lagoon,  the  islets,  and  the  Avail  of 
breakers  now  beginning  to  subside,  still  lay  clearly  pic- 
tured in  the  flushed  obscurity  of  early  day,  when  we 
stepped  again  upon  the  deck  of  the  Flying  Scud :  Nares, 
myself,  the  mate,  two  of  the  hands,  and  one  dozen  bright, 
virgin  axes,  in  war  against  that  massive  structure.  I 
think  we  all  drew  pleasurable  breath  ;  so  profound  in 
man  is  the  instinct  of  destruction,  so  engaging  is  the 
interest  of  the  chase.  For  we  were  now  about  to  taste, 
in  a  supreme  degree,  the  double  joys  of  demolishing  a 
toy  and  playing  "Hide  the  handkerchief":  sports  from 
which  we  had  all  perhaps  desisted  since  the  days  of 
infancy.  And  the  toy  we  were  to  burst  in  pieces  was  a 
deep-sea  ship ;  and  the  hidden  good  for  which  we  were 
to  hunt  was  a  prodigious  fortune. 


282  THE   WRECKER. 

The  decks  were,  washed  down,  the  main  hatch  re- 
moved, and  a  gun-tackle  purchase  rigged,  before  the 
boat  arrived  with  breakfast.  I  had  grown  so  suspicious 
of  the  wreck,  that  it  was  a  positive  relief  to  me  to  look 
down  into  the  hold,  and  see  it  full,  or  nearly  full,  of  unde- 
niable rice  packed  in  the  Chinese  fashion  iu  boluses  of 
matting.  Breakfast  over,  Johnson  and  the  hands  turned 
to  upon  the  cargo ;  while  Nares  and  I,  having  smashed 
open  the  skylight  and  rigged  up  a  windsail  on  deck, 
began  the  work  of  rummaging  the  cabins. 

I  must  not  be  expected  to  describe  our  first  day's  work, 
or  (for  that  matter)  any  of  the  rest,  in  order  and  detail 
as  it  occurred.  Such  particularity  might  have  been 
possible  for  several  officers  and  a  draft  of  men  from  a 
ship  of  war,  accompanied  by  an  experienced  secretary 
with  a  knowledge  of  shorthand.  For  two  plain  human 
beings,  unaccustomed  to  the  use  of  the  broad-axe  and 
consumed  with  an  impatient  greed  of  the  result,  the 
whole  business  melts,  in  the  retrospect,  into  a  nightmare 
of  exertion,  heat,  hurry,  and  bewilderment ;  sweat  pouring 
from  the  face  like  rain,  the  scurry  of  rats,  the  choking 
exhalations  of  the  bilge,  and  the  throbs  and  splinterings 
of  the  toiling  axes.  I  shall  content  myself  with  giving 
the  cream  of  our  discoveries  in  a  logical  rather  than  a 
temporal  order ;  though  the  two  indeed  practically  coin- 
cided, and  we  had  finished  our  exploration  of  the  cabin, 
before  we  could  be  certain  of  the  nature  of  the  cargo. 

Nares  and  I  began  operations  by  tossing  up  pell-mell 


THE   CABIN    OF   THE   "FLYING   SCUU."  283 

through  the  companion,  and  piling  in  a  squalid  heap 
about  the  wheel,  all  clothes,  personal  effects,  the  crock- 
ery, the  carpet,  stale  victuals,  tins  of  meat,  and  in  a 
word,  all  movables  from  the  main  cabin.  Thence,  we 
transferred  our  attention  to  the  captain's  quarters  on 
the  starboard  side.  Using  the  blankets  for  a  basket,  we 
sent  up  the  books,  instruments,  and  clothes  to  swell  our 
growing  midden  on  the  deck ;  and  then  Nares,  going  on 
hands  and  knees,  began  to  forage  underneath  the  bed. 
Box  after  box  of  Manilla  cigars  rewarded  his  search.  I 
took  occasion  to  smash  some  of  these  boxes  open,  and 
even  to  guillotine  the  bundles  of  cigars ;  but  quite  in 
vain  —  no  secret  cacJie  of  opium  encouraged  me  to  con- 
tinue. 

"  I  guess  I've  got  hold  of  the  dicky  now !  "  exclaimed 
Nares,  and  turning  round  from  my  perquisitions,  I  found 
he  had  drawn  forth  a  heavy  iron  box,  secured  to  the 
bulkhead  by  chain  and  padlock.  On  this  he  was  now 
gazing,  not  with  the  triumph  that  instantl}^  inflamed  my 
own  bosom,  but  with  a  somewhat  foolish  appearance  of 
surprise. 

"  ^y  George,  we  have  it  now  ! "  I  cried,  and  would 
have  shaken  hands  with  my  companion ;  but  he  did  not 
see,  or  would  not  accept,  the  salutation. 

"Let's  see  what's  in  it  first,"  he  remarked,  dryly. 
And  he  adjusted  the  box  upon  its  side,  and  with  some 
blows  of  an  axe  burst  the  lock  open.  I  threw  myself 
beside  him,  as  he  replaced  the  box  on  its  bottom  and 


284  THE    WKKCKER. 

removed  the  lid.  I  cannot  tell  what  I  expected;  a 
million's  worth  of  diamonds  might  perhaps  have  pleased 
me ;  my  cheeks  burned,  my  heart  throbbed  to  bursting ; 
and  lo !  there  was  disclosed  but  a  trayful  of  papers, 
neatly  taped,  and  a  cheque-book  of  the  customary  pat- 
tern. I  made  a  snatch  at  the  tray  to  see  what  was  be- 
neatlx ;  but  the  captain's  hand  fell  on  mine,  heavy  and 
hard. 

"  Now,  boss  ! "  he  cried,  not  unkindly,  "  is  this  to  be 
run  shipshape  ?  or  is  it  a  Dutch  grab-racket  ?  " 

xind  he  proceeded  to  untie  and  run  over  the  contents 
of  the  papers,  with  a  serious  face  and  what  seemed  an 
ostentation  of  delay.  Me  and  my  impatience  it  would 
appear  he  had  forgotten ;  for  Avhen  he  was  quite  done, 
he  sat  awhile  thinking,  whistled  a  bar  or  two,  refolded 
the  papers,  tied  them  up  again ;  and  then,  and  not 
before,  deliberately  raised  the  tray. 

I  saw  a  cigar-box,  tied  with  a  piece  of  fishing-line,  and 
four  fat  canvas-bags.  Nares  whipped  out  his  knife,  cut 
the  line,  and  opened  the  box.  It  was  about  half  full  of 
sovereigns. 

"  And  the  bags  ?  "  I  whispered. 

The  captain  ripped  them  open  one  by  one,  and  a  flood 
of  mixed  silver  coin  burst  forth  and  rattled  in  the  rusty 
bottom  of  the  box.  Without  a  word,  he  set  to  work  to 
count  the  gold. 

"  What  is  this  ?  "  I  asked. 

"It's  the  ship's  money,"  he  returned,  doggedly  con- 
tinuinsj  his  work. 


AND   Lo!    THERE   WAS  DISCLOSED   BIT  A  TKAYFUL,  Of    I'Al'EKS. 


THE   CABIN   OF   THE   "FLYING   SCUD."  285 

"  Tlie  ship's  money  ? "  I  repeated.  "  That's  the 
money  Trent  tramped  and  traded  with?  And  there's 
his  cheque-book  to  draw  upon  his  owners  ?  And  he  has 
left  it  ?  " 

"  I  guess  he  has,"  said  Nares,  austerely,  jotting  down 
a  note  of  the  gold ;  and  I  was  abashed  into  silence  till 
his  task  should  be  completed. 

It  came,  I  think,  to  three  hundred  and  seventy-eight 
pounds  sterling;  some  nineteen  pounds  of  it  in  silver: 
all  of  which  we  turned  again  into  the  chest. 

"And  what  do  you  think  of  that  ?  "  I  asked. 

"  Mr.  Dodd,"  he  replied,  "  you  see  something  of  the 
rumness  of  this  job,  but  not  the  whole.  The  specie 
bothers  you,  but  what  gets  me  is  the  papers.  Are  you 
aware  that  the  master  of  a  ship  has  charge  of  all  the 
cash  in  hand,  pays  the  men  advances,  receives  freight 
and  passage  money,  and  runs  up  bills  in  every  port  ? 
All  this  he  does  as  the  owner's  confidential  agent,  and 
his  integrity  is  proved  by  his  receipted  bills.  I  tell  j-ou, 
the  captain  of  a  ship  is  more  likely  to  forget  his  pants 
than  these  bills  which  guarantee  his  character.  I've 
known  men  drown  to  save  them  :  bad  men,  too ;  but  this 
is  the  shipmaster's  honour.  And  here  this  Captain  Trent 
—  not  hurried,  not  threatened  with  anything  but  a  free 
passage  in  a  British  man-of-war  —  has  left  them  all 
behind !  I  don't  want  to  express  myself  too  strongly, 
because  the  facts  appear  against  me,  but  the  thing  is 
impossible." 


286  THE   WRECKER. 

Dinner  came  to  us  not  long  after,  and  we  ate  it  on 
deck,  in  a  grim  silence,  each  privately  racking  his  brain 
for  some  solution  of  the  mysteries.  I  was  indeed  so 
swallowed  up  in  these  considerations,  that  the  wreck, 
the  lagoon,  the  islets^  and  the  strident  searfowl,  the 
strong  sun  then  beating  on  my  head,  and  even  the  gloomy 
countenance  of  the  captain  at  my  elbow,  all  vanished 
from  the  field  of  consciousness.  My  mind  was  a  black- 
board, on  which  I  scrawled  and  blotted  out  hypotheses ; 
comparing  each  with  the  pictorial  records  in  my  memory  : 
cyphering  with  pictures.  In  the  course  of  this  tense 
mental  exercise  I  recalled  and  studied  the  faces  of  one 
memorial  masterpiece,  the  scene  of  the  saloon ;  and  here 
I  found  myself,  on  a  sudden,  looking  in  the  eyes  of  the 
Kanaka. 

"There's  one  thing  I  can  put  beyond  doubt,  at  all 
events,"  I  cried,  relinquishing  my  dinner  and  getting 
briskly  afoot.  "  There  was  that  Kanaka  I  saw  ia  the 
bar  with  Captain  Trent,  the  fellow  the  newspapers  and 
ship's  articles  made  out  to  be  a  Chinaman.  I  mean  to 
rout  his  quarters  out  and  settle  that." 

"  All  right,"  said  Nares.  "  I'll  lazy  off  a  bit  longer, 
Mr.  Dodd ;   I  feel  pretty  rocky  and  mean." 

We  had  thoroughly  cleared  out  the  three  after-com- 
partments of  the  ship:  all  the  stuff  from  the  main  cabin 
and  the  mate's  and  captain's  quarters  lay  piled  about 
th3  wheel  ;  but  in  the  forward  stateroom  with  the  two 
bunks,  where  Nares  had  said  the  mate  and  cook  most 


THE   CABIN   OF   THE    "  FLYING    SCUD."  287 

likely  berthed,  we  had  as  yet  done  nothing.  Thither  I 
went ;  it  was  very  bare ;  a  few  pliotographs  were  tacked 
on  the  bulkhead,  one  of  them  indecent ;  a  single  chest 
stood  open,  and  like  all  we  had  yet  found,  it  had  been 
partly  rifled.  An  armful  of  two-shilling  novels  proved 
to  me  beyond  a  doubt  it  was  a  European's :  no  China- 
man would  have  possessed  any,  and  the  most  literate 
Kanaka  conceivable  in  a  ship's  galley  was  not  likely 
to  have  gone  beyond  one.  It  was  plain,  then,  that  the 
cook  had  not  berthed  aft,  and  I  must  look  elsewhere. 

The  men  had  stamped  down  the  nests  and  driven  the 
birds  from  the  galley,  so  that  I  could  now  enter  without 
contest.  One  door  had  been  already  blocked  with  rice ; 
the  place  was  in  part  darkness,  full  of  a  foul  stale  smell 
and  a  cloud  of  nasty  flies ;  it  had  been  left,  besides,  in 
some  disorder,  or  else  the  birds,  during  their  time  of 
tenancy,  had  knocked  the  things  about ;  and  the  floor, 
like  the  deck  before  we  washed  it,  was  spread  with  pasty 
filth.  Against  the  wall,  in  the  far  corner,  I  found  a 
handsome  chest  of  camphor  wood  bound  with  brass,  such 
as  Chinamen  and  sailors  love,  and  indeed  all  of  mankind 
that  plies  in  the  Pacific.  From  its  outside  view  I  could 
thus  make  no  deduction ;  and  strange  to  say,  the  interior 
was  concealed.  All  the  other  chests,  as  I  have  said 
already,  we  had  found  gaping  open  and  their  contents 
scattered  abroad  ;  the  same  remark  we  found  to  apply 
afterwards  in  the  quarters  of  the  seamen ;  only  this 
camphor-wood  chest,  a  singular  exception,  was  both 
closed  and  locked. 


288  THE   WRECKER. 

I  took  an  axe  to  it,  readily  forced  the  paltry  Chinese 
fastening,  and,  like  a  custom-house  officer,  plunged  my 
hands  among  the  contents.  For  some  while  I  groped 
among  linen  and  cotton.  Then  my  teeth  were  set  on 
edge  with  silk,  of  which  I  drew  forth  several  strips 
covered  with  mysterious  characters.  And  these  settled 
the  business,  for  I  recognized  them  as  a  kind  of  bed- 
hanging  popular  with  the  commoner  class  of  the  Chinese. 
Nor  were  farther  evidences  wanting,  such  as  night-clothes 
of  an  extraordinary  design,  a  three-stringed  Chinese 
fiddle,  a  silk  handkerchief  full  of  roots  and  herbs,  and 
a  neat  apparatus  for  smoking  opium  with  a  liberal  pro- 
vision of  the  drug.  Plainly,  then,  the  cook  had  been  a 
Chinaman ;  and  if  so,  who  was  Jos.  Amalu  ?  Or  had 
Jos.  stolen  the  chest  before  he  proceeded  to  ship  under 
a  false  name  and  domicile  ?  It  was  possible,  as  any- 
thing was  possible  in  such  a  welter;  but  regarded  as 
a  solution,  it  only  led  and  left  me  deeper  in  the  bog. 
For  why  should  this  chest  have  been  deserted  and  neg- 
lected, when  the  others  were  rummaged  or  removed  ? 
and  where  had  Jos.  come  by  that  second  chest,  with 
which  (according  to  the  clerk  at  the  What  Cheer)  he 
had  started  for  Honolulu  ? 

"  And  how  have  you  fared  ? "  inquired  the  captain, 
whom  I  found  luxuriously  reclining  in  our  mound  of 
litter.  And  the  accent  on  the  pronoun,  the  heightened 
colour  of  the  speaker's  face,  and  the  contained  excite- 
ment in  his  tones;  advertised  me  at  once  that  I  had  not 
been  alone  to  make  discoveries. 


THE  CABIN   OF   THE   "FLYING   SCUD."  289 

"I  have  found  a  Chinaman's  chest  in  the  galley," 
said  I,  "  and  John  (if  there  was  any  John)  was  not  so 
much  as  at  the  pains  to  take  his  opium." 

Nares  seemed  to  take  it  mighty  quietly.  "  That  so  ?  " 
said  he.  "Now,  cast  your  eyes  on  that  and  ovrn 
you're  beaten ! "  And  with  a  formidable  clap  of  his 
open  hand,  he  flattened  out  before  me,  on  the  deck,  a 
pair  of  newspapers. 

I  gazed  upon  them  dully,  being  in  no  mood  for  fresh 
discoveries. 

"  Look  at  them,  Mr.  Dodd,"  cried  the  captain,  sharply. 
"Can't  you  look  at  them?"  And  he  ran  a  dirt}^  thumb 
along  the  title.  " '  Sydney  Morning  Herald,  November 
26th,'  can't  you  make  that  out  ?  "  he  cried,  with  rising 
energy.  "And  don't  you  know,  sir,  that  not  thirteen 
days  after  this  paper  appeared  in  New  South  Pole,  this 
ship  we're  standing  in  heaved  her  blessed  anchors  out 
of  China?  How  did  the  Sydney  Morning  Herald  get 
to  Hong  Kong  in  thirteen  days  ?  Trent  made  no  land, 
he  spoke  no  ship,  till  he  got  here.  Then  he  either  got 
it  here  or  in  Hong  Kong.  I  give  you  your  choice,  my 
son ! "  he  cried,  and  fell  back  among  the  clothes  like  a 
man  weary  of  life. 

""\Vhere  did  you  find  them?"  I  asked.  "In  that 
black  bag  ?  " 

"Guess  so,"  he  said.  "You  needn't  fool  with  it. 
There's  nothing  else  but  a  lead-pencil  and  a  kind  of 
worked-out  knife." 


290  THE   WRECKER. 

I  looked  in  the  bag,  however,  and  was  well  rewarded. 

"  Every  man  to  his  trade,  captain,"  said  I.  "  You're 
a  sailor,  and  you've  given  me  plenty  of  points;  but  I 
am  an  artist,  and  allow  me  to  inform  you  this  is  quite 
as  strange  as  all  the  rest.  The  knife  is  a  palette  knife ; 
the  pencil,  a  Windsor  and  Newton,  and  a  B  B  B  at  that. 
A  palette  knife  and  a  B  B  B  on  a  tramp  brig!  It's 
against  the  laws  of  nature." 

"  It  would  sicken  a  dog,  wouldn't  it  ?  "  said  Nares. 

"  Yes,"  I  continued,  "  it's  been  used  by  an  artist,  too : 
see  how  it's  sharpened  —  not  for  writing  —  no  man  could 
write  with  that.  An  artist,  and  straight  from  Sydney  ? 
How  can  he  come  in  ?  " 

"0,  that's  natural  enough,"  sneered  Nares.  "They 
cabled  him  to  come  up  and  illustrate  this  dime  novel." 

We  fell  awliile  silent. 

"  Captain,"  I  said  at  last,  "  there  is  something  deuced 
underhand  about  this  brig.  You  tell  me  you've  been  to 
sea  a  good  part  of  your  life.  You  must  have  seen  shady 
things  done  on  ships,  and  heard  of  more.  Well,  what  is 
this  ?  is  it  insurance  ?  is  it  piracy  ?  what  is  it  about  9 
what  can  it  be  for  9  " 

"  Mr,  Dodd,"  returned  Nares,  "  you're  right  about  me 
having  been  to  sea  the  bigger  part  of  my  life.  And 
you're  right  again,  when  you  think  I  know  a  good  many 
ways  in  which  a  dishonest  captain  mayn't  be  on  the 
square,  nor  do  exactly  the  right  thing  by  his  owners,  and 
altogether  be  just  a  little  too  smart  by  ninety-nine  and 


THE   CABIN   OF   THE   "FLYING   SCUD."  291 

three-quarters.  There's  a  good  many  ways,  but  not  so 
many  as  you'd  think ;  and  not  one  that  has  any  mortal 
thing  to  do  with  Trent.  Trent  and  his  whole  racket  has 
got  to  do  with  nothing  —  that's  the  bed-rock  fact ;  there's 
no  sense  to  it,  and  no  use  in  it,  and  no  story  to  it :  it's  a 
beastly  dream.  And  don't  you  run  away  with  that 
notion  that  landsmen  take  about  ships.  A  society  ac- 
tress don't  go  around  more  publicly  than  what  a  ship 
does,  nor  is  more  interviewed,  nor  more  humbugged,  nor 
more  run  after  by  all  sorts  of  little  fussinesses  in  brass 
buttons.  And  more  than  an  actress,  a  ship  has  a  deal  to 
lose ;  she's  capital,  and  the  actress  only  character  —  if 
she's  that.  The  ports  of  the  world  are  thick  with  people 
ready  to  kick  a  captain  into  the  penitentiary,  if  he's  not 
as  bright  as  a  dollar  and  as  honest  as  the  morning  star ; 
and  what  with  Lloyd  keeping  watch  and  watch  in  every 
corner  of  the  three  oceans,  and  the  insurance  leeches, 
and  the  consuls,  and  the  customs  bugs,  and  the  medicos, 
you  can  only  get  the  idea  by  thinking  of  a  landsman 
watched  by  a  hundred  and  fifty  detectives,  or  a  stranger 
in  a  village  Down  East." 

"Well,  but  at  sea  ?  "  I  said. 

"  You  make  me  tired,"  retorted  the  captain.  "  What's 
the  use — at  sea?  Everything's  got  to  come  to  bearings 
at  some  port,  hasn't  it?  You  can't  stop  at  sea  forever, 
can  you? — No;  the  Flying  Scud  is  rubbish;  if  it  meant 
anything,  it  would  have  to  mean  something  so  almighty 
intricate  that  James  G.  Blaine  hasn't  got  the  brains  to 


292  THE    VVIIECKER. 

engineer  it ;  and  I  vote  for  more  axeing,  pioneering,  and 
opening  up  the  resources  of  this  phenomenal  brig,  and 
less  general  fuss,"  he  added,  arising.  "  The  dime-mu- 
seum symptoms  will  drop  in  of  themselves,  I  guess,  to 
keep  us  cheery." 

But  it  appeared  we  were  at  the  end  of  discoveries  for 
the  day ;  and  we  left  the  brig  abovit  sundown,  without 
being  further  puzzled  or  further  enlightened.  The  best 
of  the  cabin  spoils  —  books,  instruments,  papers,  silks, 
and  curiosities  —  we  carried  along  with  us  in  a  blanket, 
however,  to  divert  the  evening  hours ;  and  when  supper 
was  over,  and  the  table  cleared,  and  Johnson  set  down 
to  a  dreary  game  of  cribbage  between  his  right  hand  and 
his  left,  the  captain  and  I  turned  out  our  blanket  on 
the  floor,  and  sat  side  by  side  to  examine  and  appraise 
the  spoils. 

The  books  were  the  first  to  engage  our  notice.  These 
were  rather  numerous  (as  ISTares  contemptuously  put  it) 
"for  a  lime-juicer."  Scorn  of  the  British  mercantile 
marine  glows  in  the  breast  of  every  Yankee  merchant 
captain ;  as  the  scorn  is  not  reciprocated,  I  can  only  sup- 
pose it  justified  in  fact;  and  certainly  the  old  country 
mariner  appears  of  a  less  studious  disposition.  The 
more  credit  to  the  officers  of  the  Flying  Scud,  who  had 
quite  a  library,  both  literary  and  professional.  There 
were  Findlay's  five  directories  of  the  world  —  all  broken- 
backed,  as  is  usual  with  Findlay,  and  all  marked  and 
scribbled  over  with  corrections  and  additions  —  several 


THE   CABIN   OF   THE    "FLYING    SCUD."  293 

books  of  navigation,  a  signal  code,  and  an  Admiralty 
book  of  a  sort  of  orange  hue,  called  Islands  of  the  Eastern 
Pacific  Ocean,  Vol.  III.,  which  appeared  from  its  imprint 
to  be  tlie  latest  authorit}',  and  showed  marks  of  frequent 
consultation  in  the  passages  about  the  French  Frigate 
Slioals,  the  Harman,  Cure,  Pearl,  and  Hermes  reefs, 
Lisiausky  Island,  Ocean  Island,  and  the  place  where 
we  then  lay  —  Brooks  or  Midway.  A  volume  of  Macau- 
lay's  Essays  and  a  shilling  Sliakesj)eare  led  the  van  of 
the  belles  lettres;  the  rest  were  novels:  several  Miss 
Braddons  —  of  course,  Aurora  Floyd,  which  has  pene- 
trated to  every  isle  of  the  Pacific,  a  good  many  cheap 
detective  books,  Rob  Roy,  Auerbach's  xlnf  der  Hohe  in 
the  German,  and  a  prize  temperance  story,  pillaged  (to 
judge  by  the  stamp)  from  an  Anglo-Indian  circulating 
library. 

"  The  admiralty  man  gives  a  fine  picture  of  our 
island,"  remarked  Nares,  who  had  turned  up  Midway 
Island.  "  He  draws  the  dreariness  rather  mild,  but  you 
can  make  out  he  knows  the  place." 

"  Captain,"  I  cried,  "  you've  struck  another  point 
in  this  mad  business.  See  here,"  I  Avent  on  eagerly, 
drawing  from  my  pocket  a  crumpled  fragment  of  the 
Daily  Occidental  which  I  had  inherited  from  Jim  : 
'" '  misled  by  Hoyt's  Pacific  Directory '  ?  Where's 
Hoyt  ?  " 

"  Let's  look  into  that,"  said  Nares.  ''  I  got  that  book 
on  purpose  for  this  cruise."     Therewith  he   fetched   it 


294  THE   WRECKER. 

from  the  shelf  in  his  berth,  turned  to  Midway  Island, 
and  read  the  account  aloud.  It  stated  with  precision 
that  the  Pacific  Mail  Company  were  about  to  form  a 
depot  there,  in  preference  to  Honolulu,  and  that  they 
had  already  a  station  on  the  island. 

"  I  wonder  who  gives  these  Directory  men  their  infor- 
mation," Nares  reflected.  "Nobody  can  blame  Trent 
after  that.  I  never  got  in  company  with  squarer  lying ; 
it  reminds  a  man  of  a  presidential  campaign." 

"All  very  well,"  said  I.  "That's  your  Hoyt,  and  a 
fine,  tall  copy.  But  what  I  want  to  know  is,  where 
is  Trent's  Hoyt  ?  " 

"  Took  it  with  him,"  chuckled  Nares.  "  He  had  left 
everything  else,  bills  and  money  and  all  the  rest;  he 
was  bound  to  take  something,  or  it  would  have  aroused 
attention  on  the  Tempest:  'Happy  thought,'  says  he; 
'  let's  take  Hoyt.'  " 

"  And  has  it  not  occurred  to  you,"  I  went  on,  "  that 
all  the  Hoyts  in  creation  couldn't  have  misled  Trent, 
since  he  had  in  his  hand  that  red  admiralty  book,  an 
official  publication,  later  in  date,  and  particularly  full  on 
Midway  Island  ?  " 

"That's  a  fact!"  cried  ISTares;  "and  I  bet  the  first 
Hoyt  he  ever  saw  was  out  of  the  mercantile  library  in 
San  Francisco.  Looks  as  if  he'd  brought  her  here  on 
purpose,  don't  it  ?  But  then  that's  inconsistent  with 
the  steam-crusher  of  the  sale.  That's  the  trouble  with 
this  brig  racket ;  any  one  can  make  half  a  dozen  theories 


THE  CABIN   OF   THE   "FLYING   SCUD."  295 

for  sixty  or  seventy  per  cent  of  it;  but  when  they're 
made,  there's  always  a  fathom  or  two  of  slack  hanging 
out  of  the  other  end." 

I  believe  our  attention  fell  next  on  the  papers,  of 
which  we  had  altogether  a  considerable  bulk.  I  had 
hoped  to  find  among  these  matter  for  a  full-length 
character  of  Captain  Trent ;  but  here  I  was  doomed,  on 
the  whole,  to  disappointment.  We  could  make  out  he 
was  an  orderly  man,  for  all  his  bills  were  docketed  and 
preserved.  That  he  was  convivial,  and  inclined  to  be 
frugal  even  in  conviviality,  several  documents  pro- 
claimed. Such  letters  as  we  found  were,  with  one  ex- 
ception, arid  notes  from  tradesmen.  The  exception, 
signed  Hannah  Trent,  was  a  somewhat  fervid  appeal  for 
a  loan.  "You  know  what  misfortunes  I  have  had  to 
bear,"  wrote  Hannah,  "and  how  much  I  am  disappointed 
in  George.  The  landlady  appeared  a  true  friend  when 
I  first  came  here,  and  I  thought  her  a  perfect  lady.  But 
she  has  come  out  since  then  in  her  true  colours;  and  if 
you  will  not  be  softened  by  this  last  appeal,  I  can't  think 
what  is  to  become  of  your  affectionate  —  "  and  then  the 
signature.  This  document  was  without  place  or  date, 
and  a  voice  told  me  that  it  had  gone  likewise  without 
answer.  On  the  whole,  there  were  few  letters  anywhere 
in  the  ship ;  but  we  found  one  before  we  were  finished, 
in  a  seaman's  chest,  of  which  I  must  transcribe  some 
sentences.  It  was  dated  from  some  place  on  the  Clyde. 
"My   dearist   son,"   it   ran,    "this   is   to   tell  you  your 


296  THE   WKECKER. 

dearist  father  passed  away,  Jan  twelft,  in  the  peace  of 
the  Lord.  He  had  your  photo  and  dear  David's  lade 
upon  his  bed,  made  me  sit  by  him.  Let's  be  a'  the- 
gither,  he  said,  and  gave  you  all  his  blessing.  0  my 
dear  laddie,  why  were  nae  you  and  Davie  here  ?  He 
would  have  had  a  happier  passage.  He  spok  of  both  of 
ye  all  night  most  beautiful,  and  how  ye  used  to  stravaig 
on  the  Saturday  afternoons,  and  of  auld  Kelvinside. 
Sooth  the  tune  to  me,  he  said,  though  it  was  the  Sab- 
bath, and  I  had  to  sooth  him  Kelvin  Grove,  and  he 
looked  at  his  fiddle,  the  dear  man.  I  cannae  bear  the 
sight  of  it,  he'll  never  play  it  mair.  0  my  lamb,  come 
home  to  me,  I'm  all  by  my  lane  now."  The  rest  was  in 
a  religious  vein  and  quite  conventional.  I  have  never 
seen  any  one  more  put  out  than  Nares,  when  I  handed 
him  this  letter ;  he  had  read  but  a  few  words,  before  he 
cast  it  down ;  it  was  perhaps  a  minute  ere  he  picked  it 
up  again,  and  the  performance  was  repeated  the  third 
time  before  he  reached  the  end. 

"  It's  touching,  isn't  it  ?  "  said  I. 

For  all  answer,  Nares  exploded  in  a  brutal  oath ;  and 
it  was  some  half  an  hour  later  that  he  vouchsafed  an 
explanation.  "I'll  tell  you  what  broke  me  up  about 
that  letter,"  said  he.  "  My  old  man  played  the  fiddle, 
played  it  all  out  of  tune:  one  of  the  things  he  played 
was  Martyrdom,  I  remember  —  it  was  all  martyrdom  to 
me.  He  was  a  pig  of  a  father,  and  I  was  a  pig  of  a  son  ; 
but  it  sort  of  came  over  me  I  would  like  to  hear  that 


THE   CABIN   OF   THE   "FLYING   SCUD."  297 

fiddle  squeak  again.  Natural,"  he  added;  "I  guess 
we're  all  beasts." 

"All  sons  are,  I  guess,"  said  I.  "I  have  the  same 
trouble  on  my  conscience  :  "we  can  shake  hands  on  that." 
Which  (oddly  enough,  perhaps)  we  did. 

Amongst  the  papers  we  found  a  considerable  sprink- 
ling of  photographs ;  for  the  most  part  either  of  very 
debonair-looking  young  ladies  or  old  women  of  the 
lodging-house  persuasion.  But  one  among  them  was 
the  means  of  our  crowning  discovery. 

"  They're  not  pretty,  are  they,  Mr.  Dodd  ?  "  said  Nares, 
as  he  passed  it  over. 

"  Who  ?  "  I  asked,  mechanically  taking  the  card  (it 
was  a  quarter-plate)  in  hand,  and  smothering  a  yawn; 
for  the  hour  was  late,  the  day  had  been  laborious,  and  I 
was  wearying  for  bed. 

"  Trent  and  Company,"  said  he.  "  That's  a  historic 
picture  of  the  gang." 

I  held  it  to  the  light,  my  curiosity  at  a  low  ebb :  I  had 
seen  Captain  Trent  once,  and  had  no  delight  in  viewing 
him  again.  It  was  a  photograph  of  the  deck  of  the  brig, 
taken  from  forward :  all  in  apple-pie  order ;  the  hands 
gathered  in  the  waist,  the  officers  on  the  poop.  At  the 
foot  of  the  card  was  written,  "  Brig  Flying  Scud,  Kan- 
goon,"  and  a  date ;  and  above  or  below  each  individual 
figure  the  name  had  been  carefully  noted. 

As  I  continued  to  gaze,  a  shock  went  through  me  ;  the 
dimness  of  sleep  and  fatigue  lifted  from  my  eyes,  as  fog 


298  THE   WRECKER. 

lifts  in  the  channel ;  and  I  beheld  with  startled  clear- 
ness, the  photographic  presentment  of  a  crowd  of  stran- 
gers. "  1.  Trent,  Master "  at  the  top  of  the  card  directed 
me  to  a  smallish,  weazened  man,  with  bushy  eyebrows 
and  full  white  beard,  dressed  in  a  frock  coat  and  white 
trousers ;  a  flower  stuck  in  his  button-hole,  his  bearded 
chin  set  forward,  his  mouth  clenched  with  habitual 
determination.  There  was  not  much  of  the  sailor  in  his 
looks,  but  plenty  of  the  martinet :  a  dry,  precise  manj 
who  might  pass  for  a  preacher  in  some  rigid  sect ;  and 
whatever  he  was,  not  the  Captain  Trent  of  San  Fran- 
cisco. The  men,  too,  were  all  new  to  me  :  the  cook,  an 
unmistakable  Chinaman,  in  his  characteristic  dress,  stand- 
ing apart  on  the  poop  steps.  But  perhaps  I  turned  on 
the  whole  with  the  greatest  curiosity  to  the  figure  labelled 
"E.  Goddedaal,  1st  of£."  He  whom  I  had  never  seen,  he 
might  be  the  identical ;  he  might  be  the  clue  and  spring 
of  all  this  mystery;  and  I  scanned  his  features  with 
the  eye  of  a  detective.  He  was  of  great  stature,  seem- 
ingly blond  as  a  viking,  his  hair  clustering  round  his 
head  in  frowsy  curls,  and  two  enormous  whiskers,  like 
the  tusks  of  some  strange  animal,  jutting  from  his 
cheeks.  "With  these  virile  appendages  and  the  defiant 
attitude  in  which  he  stood,  the  expression  of  his  face 
only  imperfectly  harmonised.  It  was  wild,  heroic,  and 
womanish  looking ;  and  I  felt  I  was  prepared  to  hear  he 
was  a  sentimentalist,  and  to  see  him  weep. 

For  some  while  I  digested  my  discovery  in  private, 


THE   CABIN    OF   THE   "FLYING   SCUD."  299 

reflecting  how  best,  and  how  with  most  of  drama,  I 
might  share  it  with  the  captain.  Then  my  sketch-book 
came  in  my  head ;  and  I  fished  it  out  from  where  it  lay, 
with  other  miscellaneous  possessions,  at  the  foot  of  my 
bunk  and  turned  to  my  sketch  of  Captain  Trent  and  the 
survivors  of  the  British  brig  Flying  Scud  in  the  San 
Francisco  bar-room. 

"Nares,"  said  I,  "I've  told  you  how  I  first  saw  Cap- 
tain Trent  in  that  saloon  in  'Frisco  ?  how  he  came  with 
his  men,  one  of  them  a  Kanaka  with  a  canary-bird  in  a 
cage  ?  and  how  I  saw  him  afterwards  at  the  auction, 
frightened  to  death,  and  as  much  surprised  at  how  the 
figures  skipped  up  as  anybody  there  ?  Well,"  said  I, 
"  there's  the  man  I  saw  "  —  and  I  laid  the  sketch  before 
him  —  "  there's  Trent  of  'Frisco  and  there  are  his  three 
hands.  Find  one  of  them  in  the  photograph,  and  I'll  be 
obliged." 

Nares  compared  the  two  in  silence.  ""Well,"  he  said 
at  last,  "  I  call  this  rather  a  relief :  seems  to  clear  the 
horizon.  We  might  have  guessed  at  something  of  the 
kind  from  the  double  ration  of  chests  that  figured." 

"  Does  it  explain  anything  ?  "  I  asked. 

"It  would  explain  everything,"  ISTares  replied,  "but 
for  the  steam-crusher.  It'll  all  tally  as  neat  as  a 
patent  puzzle,  if  you  leave  out  the  way  these  people  bid 
the  wreck  up.  And  there  we  come  to  a  stone  wall. 
But  whatever  it  is,  Mr.  Dodd,  it's  on  the  crook." 

"  And  looks  like  piracy,"  I  added. 


300  THE   WRECKER, 

"  Looks  like  blind  hookey  ! "  cried  the  captain.  "  'No, 
don't  you  deceive  yourself  ;  neither  your  head  nor  mine 
is  big  enough  to  put  a  name  on  this  business." 


CHAPTER  XV. 

THE    CARGO    OF    THE    "FLYING    SCUD." 

In  my  early  days  I  was  a  man,  the  most  wedded  to 
his  idols  of  my  generation.  I  was  a  dweller  undei 
roofs :  the  gull  of  that  which  we  call  civilisation ;  a 
superstitious  votary  of  the  plastic  arts :  a  cit ;  and  a 
prop  of  restaurants.  I  had  a  comrade  in  those  days, 
somewhat  of  an  outsider,  though  he  moved  in  the  com- 
pany of  artists,  and  a  man  famous  in  our  small  world 
for  gallantry,  knee  breeches,  and  dry  and  pregnant 
sayings.  He,  looking  on  the  long  meals  and  waxing 
bellies  of  the  French,  whom  I  confess  I  somewhat  imi- 
tated, branded  me  as  "a  cultivator  of  restaurant  fat." 
And  I  believe  he  had  his  finger  on  the  dangerous  spot ; 
I  believe,  if  things  had  gone  smooth  with  me,  I  should 
be  now  swollen  like  a  prize-ox  in  body,  and  fallen  in 
mind  to  a  thing  perhaps  as  low  as  many  types  of  bour- 
geois— the  implicit  or  exclusive  artist.  That  was  a 
home  word  of  Pinkerton's,  deserving  to  be  writ  in  letters 
of  gold  on  the  portico  of  every  school  of  art :  "  What  I 


THE   CAllGO   OF   THE    "FLYING   SCUD."  301 

can't  see  is  why  you  should  waut  to  do  nothing  else." 
The  dull  man  is  made,  not  by  the  nature,  but  by  the 
degree  of  his  immersion  in  a  single  business.  And  all 
the  more  if  that  be  sedentary,  uneventful,  and  inglori- 
ously  safe,  f  More  than  one  half  of  him  will  then  remain 
unexercised  and  undeveloped ;  the  rest  will  be  distended 
and  deformed  by  over-nutrition,  over-cerebration,  and 
the  heat  of  rooms.  /  And  I  have  often  marvelled  at  the 
impudence  of  gentlemen,  who  describe  and  pass  judg- 
ments on  the  life  of  man,  in  almost  perfect  ignorance  of 
all  its  necessary  elements  and  natural  careers.  :  Those 
who  dwell  in  clubs  and  studios  may  paint  excellent 
pictures  or  write  enchanting  novels.  There  is  one  thing 
that  they  should  not  do :  they  should  pass  no  judgment 
on  man's  destiny,  for  it  is  a  thing  with  which  they  are 
unacquainted.  Their  own  life  is  an  excrescence  of  the 
moment,  doomed,  in  the  vicissitude  of  history,  to  pass 
and  disappear :  the  eternal  life  of  man,  spent  under  sun 
and  rain  and  in  rude  physical  effort,  lies  upon  one  side, 
scarce  changed  since  the  beginning. 

I  would  I  could  have  carried  along  with  me  to  Midway 
Island  all  the  writers  and  the  prating  artists  of  my  time. 
Day  after  day  of  hope  deferred,  of  heat,  of  unremitting 
toil ;  night  after  night  of  aching  limbs,  bruised  hands, 
and  a  mind  obscured  with  the  grateful  vacancy  of  physi- 
cal fatigue  :  the  scene,  the  nature  of  my  employment ; 
the  rugged  speech  and  faces  of  my  fellow-toilers,  the 
glare  of  the  day  on  deck,  the  stinking  twilight  in  the 


302  THE    WIIECKER. 

bilge,  the  shrill  myriads  of  the  ocean-fowl :  above  all, 
the  sense  of  our  immitigable  isolation  from  the  world 
and  from  the  current  epoch ;  —  keeping  another  time, 
some  eras  old ;  the  new  day  heralded  by  no  daily  paper, 
only  by  the  rising  sun ;  and  the  State,  the  churches,  the 
peopled  empires,  war,  and  the  rumours  of  war,  and  the 
voices  of  the  arts,  all  gone  silent  as  in  the  days  ere  they 
were  yet  invented.  Such  were  the  conditions  of  my 
new  experience  in  life,  of  which  (if  I  had  been  able)  I 
would  have  had  all  my  confreres  and  contemporaries  to 
partake  :  forgetting,  for  that  while,  the  orthodoxies  of  the 
moment,  and  devoted  to  a  single  and  material  purpose 
under  the  eye  of  heaven. 

Of  the  nature  of  our  task,  I  must  continue  to  give 
some  summary  idea.  The  forecastle  was  lumbered  with 
ship's  chandlery,  the  hold  nigh  full  of  rice,  the  lazarette 
crowded  with  the  teas  and  silks.  These  must  all  be 
dug  out ;  and  that  made  but  a  fraction  of  our  task.  The 
hold  was  ceiled  throughout ;  a  part,  where  perhaps  some 
delicate  cargo  was  once  stored,  had  been  lined,  in  addi- 
tion, with  inch  boards  ;  and  between  every  beam  there 
was  a  movable  panel  into  the  bilge.  Any  of  these, 
the  bulkheads  of  the  cabins,  the  very  timbers  of  the  hull 
itself,  might  be  the  place  of  hiding.  It  was  therefore 
necessary  to  demolish,  as  Ave  proceeded,  a  great  part  of 
the  ship's  inner  skin  and  fittings,  and  to  auscultate  what 
remained,  like  a  doctor  sounding  for  a  lung  disease. 
Upon  the  return,  from  any  beam  or  bulkhead,  of  a  flat 


THE   CAEGO   OF   THE    "FLYING   SCUD."  303 

or  doubtful  sound,  we  must  up  axe  and  hew  into  the 
timber :  a  violent  and  —  from  the  amount  of  dry  rot  in 
the  wreck  —  a  mortifying  exercise.  Every  night  saw  a 
deeper  inroad  into  the  bones  of  the  Flying  Scud  —  more 
beams  tapped  and  hewn  in  splinters,  more  planking 
peeled  away  and  tossed  aside  —  and  every  night  saw  us 
as  far  as  ever  from  the  end  and  object  of  our  arduous 
devastation.  In  this  perpetual  disappointment,  my 
courage  did  not  fail  me,  but  my  spirits  dwindled ;  and 
Nares  himself  grew  silent  and  morose.  At  night,  when 
supper  was  done,  we  passed  an  hour  in  the  cabin,  mostly 
without  speech :  I,  sometimes  dozing  over  a  book ;  Nares, 
sullenly  but  busily  drilling  sea-shells  with  the  instru- 
ment called  a  Yankee  Fiddle.  A  stranger  might  have 
su})posed  we  were  estranged ;  as  a  matter  of  fact,  in  this 
silent  comradeship  of  labour,  our  intimacy  grew. 

I  had  been  struck,  at  the  first  beginning  of  our  enter- 
prise upon  the  wreck,  to  find  the  men  so  ready  at  the 
captain's  lightest  word.  I  dare  not  say  they  liked,  but 
I  can  never  deny  that  they  admired  him  thoroughly.  A 
mild  word  from  his  mouth  was  more  valued  than  flattery 
and  half  a  dollar  from  myself ;  if  he  relaxed  at  all  from 
his  habitual  attitude  of  censure,  smiling  alacrity  sur- 
rounded him ;  and  I  was  led  to  think  his  theory  of 
captainship,  even  if  pushed  to  excess,  reposed  upon  some 
ground  of  reason.  But  even  terror  and  admiration  of 
the  captain  failed  us  before  the  end.  The  men  wearied 
of  the   hopeless,    unremunerative   quest    and   the   long 


304  TPIE   WRECKER. 

strain  of  labour.  They  began  to  sliirk  and  grumble. 
Retribution  fell  on  them  at  once,  and  retribution  multi- 
plied the  grumblings.  With  every  day  it  took  harder 
driving  to  keep  them  to  the  daily  drudge ;  and  we,  in 
our  narrow  boundaries,  were  kept  conscious  every  mo- 
ment of  the  ill-will  of  our  assistants. 

In  spite  of  the  best  care,  the  object  of  our  search  was 
perfectly  well  known  to  all  on  board;  and  there  had 
leaked  out  besides  some  knowledge  of  those  inconsisten- 
cies that  had  so  greatly  amazed  the  captain  and  myself. 
I  could  overhear  the  men  debate  the  character  of  Captain 
Trent,  and  set  forth  competing  theories  of  where  the 
opium  was  stowed ;  and  as  they  seemed  to  have  been 
eavesdropping  on  ourselves,  I  thought  little  shame  to 
prick  up  my  ears  when  I  had  the  return  chance  of  spying 
upon  them,  in  this  way.  I  could  diagnose  their  temper 
and  judge  how  far  they  were  informed  upon  the  mystery 
of  the  Flying  Scud.  It  was  after  having  thus  overheard 
some  almost  mutinous  speeches,  that  a  fortunate  idea 
crossed  my  mind.  At  night,  I  matured  it  in  my  bed,  and 
the  first  thing  the  next  morning,  broached  it  to  the  cap- 
tain. 

"  Suppose  I  spirit  up  the  hands  a  bit,"  I  asked,  "  by 
the  offer  of  a  reward  ?  " 

"  If  you  think  you're  getting  your  month's  wages  out 
of  them  the  way  it  is,  I  don't,"  was  his  reply.  "  How- 
ever, they  are  all  the  men  you've  got,  and  you're  the 
supercargo." 


THE   CARGO   OF   THE    "FLYING   SCUD."  305 

This,  from  a  person  of  the  captain's  character,  might 
be  regarded  as  complete  adhesion ;  and  the  crew  were 
accordingly  called  aft.  I^ever  had  the  caj^tain  worn  a 
front  more  menacing.  It  was  supposed  by  all  that  some 
misdeed  had  been  discovered,  and  some  surprising  pun- 
ishment was  to  be  announced. 

"  See  here,  you  !  "  he  threw  at  them  over  his  shoulder 
as  he  walked  the  deck,  "  Mr.  Dodd,  here,  is  going  to  offer 
a  reward  to  the  first  man  who  strikes  the  opium  in  that 
wreck.  There's  two  ways  of  making  a  donkey  go ;  both 
good,  I  guess :  the  one's  kicks  and  the  other's  carrots. 
Mr.  Dodd's  going  to  try  the  carrots.  Well,  my  sons,"  — 
and  here  he  faced  the  men  for  the  first  time  with  his 
hands  behind  him  —  "if  that  opium's  not  found  in  five 
days,  you  can  come  to  me  for  the  kicks." 

He  nodded  to  the  present  narrator,  who  took  up  the 
tale.  ''Here  is  what  I  propose,  men,"  said  I:  "I  put 
up  one  hundred  and  fifty  dollars.  If  any  man  can  lay 
hands  on  the  stuff  right  away,  and  off  his  own  club,  he 
shall  have  the  hundred  and  fifty  down.  If  any  one  can 
put  us  on  the  scent  of  where  to  look,  he  shall  have  a 
hundred  and  twenty-five,  and  the  balance  shall  be  for 
the  lucky  one  who  actually  picks  it  up.  We'll  call  it 
the  Pinkerton  Stakes,  captain,"  I  added,  with  a  smile. 

"Call  it  the  Grand  Combination  Sweep,  then,"  cries 
he.  "  For  I  go  you  better.  Look  here,  men,  I  make  up 
this  jack-pot  to  two  hundred  and  fifty  dollars,  American 
gold  coin." 


306  THE  WRECKER. 

"  Thank  you,  Captain  Nares,"  said  I ;  "  that  was  hand- 
somely done." 

"  It  was  kindly  meant,"  he  returned. 

The  offer  was  not  made  in  vain  ;  the  hands  had  scarce 
yet  realised  the  magnitude  of  the  reward,  they  had 
scarce  begun  to  buzz  aloud  in  the  extremity  of  hope 
and  wonder,  ere  the  Chinese  cook  stepped  forward  with 
gracious  gestures  and  explanatory  smiles. 

"Captain,"  he  began,  "I  serv-um  two  year  Melican 
navy ;  serv-um  six  year  mail-boat  steward.  Savvy 
plenty." 

''Oho!"  cried  Nares,  ''you  savvy  plenty,  do  you? 
(Beggar's  seen  this  trick  in  the  mail-boats,  I  guess.) 
Well,  why  you  no  savvy  a  little  sooner,  sonny  ?  " 

"  I  think  bimeby  make-um  reward,"  replied  the  cook, 
with  smiling  dignity. 

"  Well,  you  can't  say  fairer  than  that,"  the  captain 
admitted,  "  and  now  the  reward's  offered,  you'll  talk  ? 
Speak  up,  then.  Suppose  you  speak  true,  you  get 
reward.     See  ?  " 

"I  think  long  time,"  replied  the  Chinaman.  "See 
plenty  litty  mat  lice ;  too-muchy  plenty  litty  mat  lice ; 
sixty  ton,  litty  mat  lice.  I  think  all-e-time :  perhaps 
plenty  opium  plenty  litty  mat  lice  ?  " 

"  Well,  Mr.  Dodd,  how  does  that  strike  you  ?  "  asked 
the  captain.  "  He  may  be  right,  he  may  be  wrong. 
He's  likely  to  be  right :  for  if  he  isn't,  where  can  the 
stuff  be  ?     On  the  other  hand,  if  he's  wrong,  we  destroy 


THE   CARGO   OF   THE    "FLYING    SCUD."  307 

a  hundred  and  fifty  tons  of  good  rice  for  notliing.  It's 
a  point  to  be  considered." 

"  I  don't  hesitate,"  said  I.  "  Let's  get  to  the  bottom 
of  the  thing.  The  rice  is  nothing  ;  the  rice  will  neither 
make  nor  break  us." 

'*  That's  how  I  expected  you  to  see  it,"  returned  Nares. 

And  we  called  the  boat  away  and  set  forth  on  our  new 
quest. 

The  hold  was  now  almost  entirely  emptied ;  the  mats 
(of  which  there  went  forty  to  the  short  ton)  had  been 
stacked  on  deck,  and  now  crowded  the  ship's  waist  and 
forecastle.  It  was  our  task  to  disembowel  and  explore 
six  thousand  individual  mats,  and  incidentally  to  destroy 
a  hundred  and  fifty  tons  of  valuable  food.  Nor  were 
the  circumstances  of  the  day's  business  less  strange  than 
its  essential  nature.  Each  man  of  us,  armed  with  a 
great  knife,  attacked  the  pile  from  his  own  quarter, 
slashed  into  the  nearest  mat,  burrowed  in  it  with  his 
hands,  and  shed  forth  the  rice  upon  the  deck,  where  it 
heaped  up,  overflowed,  and  was  trodden  down,  poured 
at  last  into  the  scuppers,  and  occasionally  spouted  from 
the  vents.  About  the  wreck,  thus  transformed  into  an 
overflowing  granary,  the  sea-fowl  swarmed  in  myriads 
and  with  surprising  insolence.  The  sight  of  so  much 
food  confounded  them ;  they  deafened  us  with  their 
shrill  tongues,  swooped  in  our  midst,  dashed  in  our 
faces,  and  snatched  the  grain  from  between  our  fingers. 
The  men  —  their  hands  bleeding  from  these  assaults  — 


308  THE   "WRECKER. 

turned  savagely  on  the  offensive,  drove  their  knives  into 
the  birds,  drew  them  out  crimsoned,  and  turned  again 
to  dig  among  the  rice,  unmindful  of  the  gawking  crea- 
tures that  struggled  and  died  among  their  feet.  We 
made  a  singular  picture  :  the  hovering  and  diving  birds  ; 
the  bodies  of  the  dead  discolouring  the  rice  with  blood  ; 
the  scuppers  vomiting  breadstuff ;  the  men,  frenzied 
by  the  gold  hunt,  toiling,  slaying,  and  shouting  aloud: 
over  all,  the  lofty  intricacy  of  rigging  and  the  radiant 
heaven  of  the  Pacific.  Every  man  there  toiled  in  the 
immediate  hope  of  fifty  dollars  ;  and  I,  of  fifty  thoii- 
sand.  Small  wonder  if  we  waded  callously  in  blood  and 
food. 

It  was  perhaps  about  ten  in  the  forenoon  when  the 
scene  was  interrupted.  Xares,  who  had  just  ripped  open 
a  fresh  mat,  drew  forth,  and  slung  at  his  feet,  among  the 
rice,  a  papered  tin  box. 

"  How's  that  ?  "  he  shouted. 

A  cry  broke  from  all  hands :  the  next  moment,  for- 
getting their  own  disappointment,  in  that  contagious 
sentiment  of  success,  they  gave  three  cheers  that  scared 
the  sea-birds  ;  and  the  next,  they  had  crowded  round 
the  captain,  and  were  jostling  together  and  groping  with 
emulous  hands  in  the  new-opened  mat.  Box  after  box 
rewarded  them,  six  in  all ;  wrapped,  as  I  have  said,  in 
a  paper  envelope,  and  the  paper  printed  on,  in  Chinese 
characters. 

Nares  turned  to  me  and  shook  my  hand.     "  I  began 


THE   CARGO   OF   THE    "FLYING    SCUD."  309 

to  think  we  should  never  see  this  day,"  said  he.  "  I  con- 
gratulate you,  Mr.  Dodd,  on  having  pulled  it  through." 

The  captain's  tones  affected  me  profoundly ;  and  when 
Johnson  and  the  men  pressed  round  me  in  turn  with 
congratulations,  the  tears  came  in  my  eyes. 

"These  are  five-tael  boxes,  more  than  two  pounds," 
said  Nares,  weighing  one  in  his  hand.  "  Say  two  hun- 
dred and  fifty  dollars  to  the  mat.  Lay  into  it,  boys! 
We'll  make  Mr.  Dodd  a  millionnaire  before  dark." 

It  was  strange  to  see  with  what  a  fury  we  fell  to. 
The  men  had  now  nothing  to  expect ;  the  mere  idea  of 
great  sums  inspired  them  with  disinterested  ardour. 
Mats  were  slashed  and  disembowelled,  the  rice  flowed  to 
our  knees  in  the  ship's  waist,  the  sweat  ran  in  our  eyes 
and  blinded  us,  our  arms  ached  to  agony ;  and  yet  our 
fire  abated  not.  Dinner  came ;  we  were  too  weary  to 
eat,  too  hoarse  for  conversation ;  and  yet  dinner  was 
scarce  done,  before  we  were  afoot  again  and  delving  in 
the  rice.  Before  nightfall  not  a  mat  was  unexplored, 
and  we  were  face  to  face  with  the  astonishing  result. 

For  of  all  the  inexplicable  things  in  the  story  of  the 
Flying  Scud,  here  was  the  most  inexplicable.  Out  of 
the  six  thousand  mats,  only  twenty  were  found  to  have 
been  sugared ;  in  each  we  found  the  same  amount,  about 
twelve  pounds  of  drug;  making  a  grand  total  of  two 
hundred  and  forty  pounds.  By  the  last  San  Francisco 
quotation,  opium  was  selling  for  a  fraction  over  twenty 
dollars  a  pound ;  but  it  had  been  known  not  long  before 


310  THE   WRECKER. 

to  bring  as  much  as  forty  in  Honolulu,  where  it  was 
contraband. 

Taking,  then,  this  high  Honolulu  figure,  the  value  of  tbo 
opium  on  board  the  Flying  Scud  fell  considerably  short 
of  ten  thousand  dollars,  while  at  the  San  Francisco  rate, 
it  lacked  a  trifle  of  five  thousand.  And  fifty  thousand 
was  the  price  that  Jim  and  I  had  paid  for  it.  And  Bel- 
lairs  had  been  eager  to  go  higher !  There  is  no  lan- 
guage to  express  the  stupor  with  which  I  contemplated 
this  result. 

It  may  be  argued  we  were  not  yet  sure ;  there  might 
be  yet  another  cache;  and  you  may  be  certain  in  that 
hour  of  my  distress  the  argument  was  not  forgotten. 
There  was  never  a  ship  more  ardently  perquested;  no 
stone  was  left  unturned,  and  no  expedient  untried  ;  day 
after  day  of  growing  despair,  we  punched  and  dug  in 
the  brig's  vitals,  exciting  the  men  with  promises  and 
presents ;  evening  after  evening  Nares  and  I  sat  face 
to  face  in  the  narrow  cabin,  racking  our  minds  for  some 
neglected  possibility  of  search.  I  could  stake  my  salva- 
tion on  the  certainty  of  the  result :  in  all  that  ship  there 
was  nothing  left  of  value  but  the  timber  and  the  copper 
nails.  So  that  our  case  was  lamentably  plain ;  we  had 
paid  fifty  thousand  dollars,  borne  the  charges  of  the 
schooner,  and  paid  fancy  interest  on  money;  and  if 
things  went  well  with  us,  we  might  realise  fifteen  per 
cent  of  the  first  outlay.  We  were  not  merely  bankrupt, 
we  were  comic  bankrupts  :  a  fair  butt  for  jeering  in  the 


THE   CARGO   OF   THE    "FLYING   SCUD."  311 

streets.  I  hope  I  bore  the  blow  with  a  good  counte- 
nance ;  indeed,  my  mind  had  long  been  quite  made  up, 
and  since  the  day  we  found  the  opium  I  had  known  the 
result.  But  the  thought  of  Jim  and  Mamie  ached  in 
me  like  a  physical  pain,  and  I  shrank  from  speech  and 
companionship. 

I  was  in  this  frame  of  mind  when  the  captain  pro- 
posed that  we  should  land  upon  the  island.  I  saw  he 
had  something  to  say,  and  only  feared  it  might  be  con- 
solation; for  I  could  just  bear  my  grief,  not  bungling 
sympathy ;  and  yet  I  had  no  choice  but  to  accede  to  his 
proposal. 

We  walked  awhile  along  the  beach  in  silence.  The 
sun  overhead  reverberated  rays  of  heat;  the  staring 
sand,  the  glaring  lagoon,  tortured  ovir  eyes ;  and  the 
birds  and  the  boom  of  the  far-away  breakers  made  a 
savage  symphony. 

"  I  don't  require  to  tell  you  the  game's  up  ?  "  Nares 
asked. 

"  No,"  said  I. 

"  I  was  thinking  of  getting  to  sea  to-morrow,"  he 
pursued. 

"  The  best  thing  you  can  do,"  said  I. 

"  Shall  we  say  Honolulu  ?  "  he  inquired. 

"  0  yes ;  let's  stick  to  the  programme,"  I  cried.  "  Hon- 
olulu be  it ! " 

There  was  another  silence,  and  then  Nares  cleared  his 
throat. 


312  THE    WRECKER. 

"  We've  been  pretty  good  friends,  you  and  me,  Mr. 
Dodd,"  he  resumed.  "  We've  been  going  through  the 
kind  of  thing  that  tries  a  man.  We've  had  the  hardest 
kind  of  work,  we've  been  badly  backed,  and  now  we're 
badly  beaten.  And  we've  fetched  through  without  a 
word  of  disagreement.  I  don't  say  this  to  praise  myself: 
it's  my  trade ;  it's  what  I'm  paid  for,  and  trained  for, 
and  brought  up  to.  But  it  was  another  thing  for  you ; 
it  was  all  new  to  you;  and  it  did  me  good  to  see  you 
stand  right  up  to  it  and  swing  right  into  it,  day  in,  day 
out.  And  then  see  how  you've  taken  this  disappoint- 
ment, when  everybody  knows  you  must  have  been 
taughtened  up  to  shying-point !  I  wish  you'd  let  me 
tell  you,  Mr.  Dodd,  that  you've  stood  out  mighty  manly 
and  handsomely  in  all  this  business,  and  made  every  one 
like  you  and  admire  you.  And  I  wish  you'd  let  me  tell 
you,  besides,  that  I've  taken  this  wreck  business  as  much 
to  heart  as  you  have ;  something  kind  of  rises  in  my 
throat  when  I  think  we're  beaten;  and  if  I  thought 
waiting  would  do  it,  I  would  stick  on  this  reef  until  we 
starved." 

I  tried  in  vain  to  thank  him  for  these  generous  words, 
but  he  was  beforehand  with  me  in  a  moment. 

"  I  didn't  bring  you  ashore  to  sound  my  praises,"  he 
interrupted.  "We  understand  one  another  now,  that's 
all ;  and  I  guess  you  can  trust  me.  What  I  wished  to 
speak  about  is  more  important,  and  it's  got  to  be  faced. 
What  are  we  to  do  about  the  Fbjimj  Scud  and  the  dime 
novel  ?  " 


THE   CARGO   OF   THE    "FLYING   SCUD."  313 

"I  really  have  thought  nothing  about  that,"  I  replied. 
"  But  I  expect  I  mean  to  get  at  the  bottom  of  it ;  and  if 
the  bogus  Captain  Trent  is  to  be  found  on  the  earth's 
surface,  I  guess  I  mean  to  find  him." 

"All  you've  got  to  do  is  talk,"  said  Nares ;  "you  can 
make  the  biggest  kind  of  boom;  it  isn't  often  the 
reporters  have  a  chance  at  such  a  yarn  as  this ;  and  I 
can  tell  you  how  it  will  go.  It  will  go  by  telegraph, 
Mr.  Dodd ;  it'll  be  telegraphed  by  the  column,  and  head- 
lined, and  frothed  up,  and  denied  by  authority ;  and  it'll 
hit  bogus  Captain  Trent  in  a  Mexican  bar-room,  and 
knock  over  bogus  Goddedaal  in  a  slum  somewhere  up 
the  Baltic,  and  bowl  down  Hardy  and  Brown  in  sailors' 
music  halls  round  Greenock.  0,  there's  no  doubt  you 
can  have  a  regular  domestic  Judgment  Day.  The  only 
point  is  whether  you  deliberately  want  to." 

"Well,"  said  I,  "I  deliberately  don't  want  one  thing: 
I  deliberately  don't  want  to  make  a  public  exhibition  of 
myself  and  Pinkerton:  so  moral  —  smuggling  opium; 
such  damned  fools — paying  fifty  thousand  for  a  'dead 
horse ' ! " 

"  No  doubt  it  might  damage  you  in  a  business  sense," 
the  captain  agreed.  "  And  I'm  pleased  you  take  that 
view  ;  for  I've  turned  kind  of  soft  upon  the  job.  There's 
been  some  crookedness  about,  no  doubt  of  it ;  but,  Law 
bless  you !  if  we  dropped  upon  the  troupe,  all  the'  pre- 
mier artists  would  slip  right  out  Avith  the  boodle  in  their 
grip-sacks,  and  you'd   only  collar  a  lot  of  old  mutton- 


314  THE   WKECKER. 

headed  shell-backs  that  didn't  know  tha  "back  of  the  busi- 
ness from  the  front.  I  don't  take  much  stock  in  Mercan- 
tile Jack,  you  know  that ;  but,  poor  devil,  he's  got  to  go 
Avhere  he's  told ;  and  if  you  make  trouble,  ten  to  one 
it'll  make  you  sick  to  see  the  innocents  who  have  to  stand 
the  racket.  It  would  be  different  if  we  understood  the 
operation  ;  but  we  don't,  you  see  :  there's  a  lot  of  queer 
corners  in  life ;  and  my  vote  is  to  let  the  blame'  thing 
lie." 

"You  speak  as  if  we  had  that  in  our  i)ower,"  I 
objected. 

"  And  so  we  have,"  said  he. 

"  What  about  the  men  ?  "  I  asked.  "  They  know  too 
much  by  half ;  and  you  can't  keep  them  from  talking." 

"  Can't  I  ?  "  returned  Nares.  "  I  bet  a  boarding- 
master  can !  They  can  be  all  half-seas  over,  when  they 
get  ashore,  blind  drunk  by  dark,  and  cruising  out  of  the 
Golden  Gate  in  different  deep-sea  ships  by  the  next 
morning.  Can't  keep  them  from  talking,  can't  I  ?  Well, 
I  can  make  'em  talk  separate,  leastways.  If  a  wdiole 
crew  came  talking,  parties  would  listen ;  but  if  it's  only 
one  lone  old  shell-back,  it's  the  usual  yarn.  And  at 
least,  they  needn't  talk  before  six  months,  or  —  if  we 
have  luck,  and  there's  a  whaler  handy  —  three  years. 
And  by  that  time,  Mr.  Dodd,  it's  ancient  history." 

"  That's  what  they  call  Shanghaiing,  isn't  it  ? "  I 
asked.     "  I  thought  it  belonged  to  the  dime  novel." 

"  0,    dime   novels    are    right    enough,"   returned   the 


THE  CARGO   OF   THE   "FLYING   SCUD."  315 

captain.  "Nothing  wrong  with  the  dime  novel,  only 
that  things  happen  thicker  than  they  do  in  life,  and  the 
practical  seamanship  is  off-colour." 

"So  we  can  keep  the  business  to  ourselves,"  I  mused. 

"  There's  one  other  person  that  might  blab,"  said  the 
captain.  "  Though  I  don't  believe  she  has  anything  left 
to  tell" 

"And  who  is  she?"  I  asked. 

"The  old  girl  there,"  he  answered,  pointing  to  the 
wreck.  "I  know  there's  nothing  in  her;  but  somehow 
I'm  afraid  of  some  one  else  —  it's  the  last  thing  you'd 
expect,  so  it's  just  the  first  that'll  happen  —  some  one 
dropping  into  this  God-forgotten  island  where  nobody 
drops  in,  waltzing  into  that  wreck  that  we've  grown  old 
with  searching,  stooping  straight  down,  and  picking  right 
up  the  very  thing  that  tells  the  story.  What's  that  to 
me  ?  you  may  ask,  and  why  am  I  gone  Soft  Tomni}^  on 
this  Museum  of  Crooks  ?  They've  smashed  up  you  and 
Mr.  Pinkerton;  they've  turned  my  hair  gray  with 
conundrums  ;  they've  been  up  to  larks,  no  doubt ;  and 
that's  all  I  know  of  them  —  you  say.  Well,  and  that's 
just  where  it  is.  I  don't  know  enough ;  I  don't  know 
what's  uppermost ;  it's  just  such  a  lot  of  miscellaneous 
eventualities  as  I  don't  care  to  go  stirring  up ;  and  I 
ask  you  to  let  me  deal  with  the  old  girl  after  a  patent 
of  my  own." 

"  Certainly  —  what  you  please,"  said  I,  scarce  with 
attention,  for  a  new  thought  now   occupied  my  brain. 


316  THE  WEECKER. 

"  Captain,"  I  broke  out,  "  j^ou  are  wrong ;  we  cannot 
luish  this  up.     There  is  one  thing  you  have  forgotten." 

"  What  is  that  ?  "  he  asked. 

"  A  bogus  Captain  Trent,  a  bogus  Gocldedaal,  a  whole 
bogus  crew^  have  all  started  home,"  said  I.  "  If  Ave  are 
right,  not  one  of  them  will  reach  his  journey's  end. 
And  do  you  mean  to  say  that  such  a  circumstance  as 
that  can  paes  without  remark  ?  " 

"  Sailors,"  said  the  captain,  "  only  sailors  !  If  they 
were  all  bound  for  one  place,  in  a  body,  I  don't  say  so ; 
but  they're  all  going  separate — to  Hull,  to  Sweden,  to 
the  Clyde,  to  the  Thames.  Well,  at  each  place,  what  is 
it  ?  Nothing  new.  Only  one  sailor  man  missing  :  got 
drunk,  or  got  drowned,  or  got  left :  the  proper  sailor's 
end." 

Something  bitter  in  the  thought  and  in  the  speaker's 
tones  struck  me  hard.  *'  Here  is  one  that  has  got  left ! " 
I  cried,  getting  sharply  to  my  feet;  for  we  had  been 
some  time  seated.  "  I  wish  it  were  the  other.  I  don't 
—  don't  relish  going  home  to  Jim  with  this  !  " 

"See  here,"  said  Nares,  with  ready  tact,  "I  must  be 
getting  aboard.  Johnson's  in  the  brig  annexing  chand- 
lery and  canvas,  and  there's  some  things  in  the  Norah 
that  want  fixing  against  we  go  to  sea.  Would  you  like 
to  be  left  here  in  the  chicken-ranch  ?  I'll  send  for 
you  to  supper." 

I  embraced  the  proposal  with  delight.  Solitude,  in  my 
frame  of  mind,  was  not  too  dearly  purchased  at  the  risk 


THE   CARGO   OF   THE    "FLYING    SCUp."  317 

of  sunstroke  or  sand-blindness ;  and  soon  I  was  alone 
on  the  ill-omened  islet.  I  should  find  it  hard  to  tell  of 
what  I  thought  —  of  Jim,  of  Mamie,  of  our  lost  fortune, 
of  my  lost  hopes,  of  the  doom  before  me :  to  turn  to  at 
some  mechanical  occupation  in  some  subaltern  rank,  and 
to  toil  there,  unremarked  and  unamused,  until  the  hour 
of  the  last  deliverance.  I  was,  at  least,  so  sunk  in  sad- 
ness, that  I  scarce  remarked  where  I  was  going  ;  and 
chance  (or  some  finer  sense  that  lives  in  us,  and  only 
guides  us  when  the  mind  is  in  abeyance)  conducted  my 
steps  into  a  quarter  of  the  island  where  the  birds  were 
few.  By  some  devious  route,  which  I  was  unable  to 
retrace  for  my  return,  I  was  thus  able  to  mount,  with- 
out interruption,  to  the  highest  point  of  land.  And 
here  I  was  recalled  to  consciousness  by  a  last  discovery. 

The  spot  on  which  I  stood  was  level,  and  commanded 
a  wide  view  of  the  lagoon,  the  bounding  reef,  the  round 
horizon.  Nearer  hand  I  saw  the  sister  islet,  the  wreck, 
the  Norah  Creina,  and  the  Norah's  boat  already  moving 
shoreward.  For  the  sun  was  now  low,  flaming  on  the 
sea's  verge;  and  the  galley  chimney  smoked  on  board 
the  schooner. 

It  thus  befell  that  though  my  discovery  was  both 
affecting  and  suggestive,  I  had  no  leisure  to  examine 
further.  What  I  saw  was  the  blackened  embers  of  fire 
of  wreck.  By  all  the  signs,  it  must  have  blazed  to  a 
good  height  and  burned  for  days  ;  from  the  scantling  of 
a  spar  that  lay  upon  the  margin  only  half  consumed,  it 


318  ,  THE   WRECKER. 

must  have  been  the  work  of  more  than  one;  and  I 
received  at  once  the  image  of  a  forlorn  troop  of  casta- 
ways, houseless  in  that  lost  corner  of  the  earth,  and 
feeding  there  their  lire  of  signal.  The  next  moment  a 
hail  reached  me  from  the  boat;  and  bursting  through 
the  bushes  and  the  rising  sea-fowl,  I  said  farewell  (I 
trust  forever)  to  that  desert  isle. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

IN  WHICH  I  TURN  SMUGGLER,  AND  THE   CAPTAIN  CASUIST. 

The  last  night  at  Midway,  I  had  little  sleep ;  the  next 
morning,  after  the  sun  was  risen,  and  the  clatter  of 
departure  had  begun  to  reign  on  deck,  I  lay  a  long  while 
dozing;  and  when  at  last  I  stepped  from  the  companion, 
the  schooner  was  already  leaping  through  the  pass  into 
the  open  sea.  Close  on  her  board,  the  huge  scroll  of  a 
breaket  unfurled  itself  along  the  reef  with  a  prodigious 
clamour;  and  behind  I  saw  the  wreck  vomiting  into  the 
morning  air  a  coil  of  smoke.  The  wreaths  already 
blew  out  far  to  leeward ;  flames  already  glittered  in  the 
cabin  skylight;  and  the  sea-fowl  were  scattered  in  sur- 
prise as  wide  as  the  lagoon.  As  we  drew  further  off, 
the  conflagration  of  the  Flying  Said  flamed  higher ;  and 
long  after  we  had  dropped  all  signs  of  Midway  Island, 


I  TURN   SMUGGLER,  THE  CAPTAIN  CASUIST.      819 

the  smoke  still  hung  in  the  horizon  like  that  of  a 
distant  steamer.  With  the  fading  out  of  that  last  ves- 
tige, the  Norah  Creina  passed  again  into  the  empty 
world  of  cloud  and  water  by  which  she  had  approached ; 
and  the  next  features  that  appeared,  eleven  days  later, 
to  break  the  line  of  sky,  were  the  arid  mountains  of 
Oahu. 

It  has  often  since  been  a  comfortable  thought  to  me 
that  we  had  thus  destroyed  the  tell-tale  remnants  of  the 
Flying  Scud;  and  often  a  strange  one  that  my  last  sight 
and  reminiscence  of  that  fatal  ship  should  be  a  pillar  of 
smoke  on  the  horizon.  To  so  many  others  besides  my- 
self the  same  appearance  had  played  a  part  in  the 
various  stages  of  that  business  :  luring  some  to  what 
they  little  imagined,  filling  some  with  unimaginable 
terrors.  But  ours  was  the  last  smoke  raised  in  the 
story  ;  and  with  its  dying  away  the  secret  of  the  Flying 
Scud  became  a  private  property. 

It  was  by  the  first  light  of  dawn  that  we  saw,  close  on 
board,  the  metropolitan  island  of  Hawaii.  We  held 
along  the  coast,  as  near  as  we  could  venture,  with  a 
fresh  breeze  and  under  an  unclouded  heaven ;  beholding, 
as  we  went,  the  arid  mountain  sides  and  scrubby  cocoa- 
palms  of  that  somewhat  melancholy  archipelago.  About 
four  of  the  afternoon  we  turned  Waimanolo  Point,  the 
westerly  headland  of  the  great  bight  of  Honolulu ; 
showed  ourselves  for  twenty  minutes  in  full  view  ;  and 
then  fell  again  to  leeward,  and  put  in  the  rest  of  day- 


320  THE  WRECKER. 

light,  plying  under  shortened  sail  under  the  lee  of 
Waimanolo. 

A  little  after  dark  we  beat  once  more  about  the  point, 
and  crept  cautiously  toward  the  mouth  of  the  Pearl 
Lochs,  where  Jim  and  I  had  arranged  I  was  to  meet  the 
smugglers.  The  night  v/'as  happily  obscure,  the  water 
smooth.  We  showed,  according  to  instructious,  no  light 
on  deck :  only  a  red  lantern  dropped  from  either  cathead 
to  within  a  couple  of  feet  of  the  water.  A  lookout  was 
stationed  on  the  bowsprit  end,  another  in  the  crosstrees ; 
and  the  whole  ship's  company  crowded  forward,  scouting 
for  enemies  or  friends.  It  was  now  the  crucial  moment 
of  our  enterprise ;  we  were  now  risking  liberty  and 
credit ;  and  that  for  a  sum  so  small  to  a  man  in  my 
bankrupt  situation,  that  I  could  have  laughed  aloud  in 
bitterness.  But  the  piece  had  been  arranged,  and  we 
must  play  it  to  the  finish. 

For  some  while,  we  saw  nothing  but  the  dark  moun- 
tain outline  of  the  island,  the  torches  of  native  fisher- 
men glittering  here  and  there  along  the  foreshore,  and 
right  in  the  midst,  that  cluster  of  brave  lights  with 
which  the  town  of  Honolulu  advertises  itself  to  the  sea- 
ward. Presently  a  ruddy  star  appeared  inshore  of  us, 
and  seemed  to  draw  near  unsteadily.  This  was  the 
anticipated  signal;  and  we  made  haste  to  show  the 
countersign,  lowering  a  white  light  from  the  quarter, 
extinguishing  the  two  others,  and  laying  the  schooner 
incontinently   to.      The   star   approached   slowly;      the 


I  TURN  SMUGGLER,  THE  CAPTAIN  CASUIST.      321 

sounds  of  oars  and  of  men's  speech  came  to  us  across  the 
water ;  and  then  a  voice  hailed  us. 

"  Is  that  Mr.  Dodd  ?  " 

"Yes,"  I  returned.     "Is  Jim  Pinkerton  there  ?" 

"Ko,  sir,"  replied  the  voice.  "But  there's  one  of  his 
crowd  here ;  name  of  Speedy." 

"I'm  here,  Mr.  Dodd,"  added  Speedy  himself.  "I 
have  letters  for  you." 

"All  right,"  I  replied.  "Come  aboard,  gentlemen,  and 
let  me  see  my  mail." 

A  whaleboat  accordingly  ranged  alongside,  and  three 
men  boarded  us  :  my  old  San  Francisco  friend,  the  stock- 
gambler  Speedy,  a  little  wizened  person  of  the  name  of 
Sharpe,  and  a  big,  flourishing,  dissipated-looking  man 
called  Fowler.  The  two  last  (I  learned  afterward)  were 
frequent  partners ;  Sharpe  supplied  the  capital,  and 
Fowler,  who  was  quite  a  character  in  the  islands  and 
occupied  a  considerable  station,  brought  activity,  daring, 
and  a  private  influence,  highly  necessary  in  the  case. 
Both  seemed  to  approach  the  business  with  a  keen  sense 
of  romance ;  and  I  believe  this  was  the  chief  attraction, 
at  least  with  Fowler  —  for  whom  I  early  conceived  a 
sentiment  of  liking.  But  in  that  first  moment  I  had 
something  else  to  think  of  than  to  judge  my  new 
acquaintances ;  and  before  Speedy  had  fished  out  tlie 
letters,  the  full  extent  of  our  misfortune  was  revealed. 

"We've  rather  bad  news  for  you,  Mr.  Dodd,"  said 
Fowler.     "  Your  firm's  gone  up." 


322  THE   WllECKER. 

"  Already  ! "  I  exclaimed. 

"  Well,  it  was  thought  rather  a  wonder  Pinkerton  held 
on  as  long  as  he  did,"  was  the  reply.  "  The  wreck  deal 
was  too  big  for  your  credit ;  you  were  doing  a  big  busi- 
ness, no  doubt,  but  you  were  doing  it  on  precious  little 
capital ;  and  when  the  strain  came,  you  were  bound  to 
go.  Pinkerton's  through  all  right :  seven  cents  divi- 
dend ;  some  remarks  made,  but  nothing  to  hurt :  the 
press  let  you  down  easy  —  I  guess  Jim  had  relations 
there.  The  only  trouble  is,  that  all  this  Flying  Scud 
affair  got  in  the  papers  with  the  rest ;  everybody's  wide 
awake  in  Honolulu ;  and  the  sooner  we  get  the  stuff  in 
and  the  dollars  out,  the  better  for  all  concerned." 

"Gentlemen,"  said  I,  "you  must  excuse  me.  My 
friend,  the  captain  here,  will  drink  a  glass  of  champagne 
with  you  to  give  you  patience ;  but  as  for  myself,  I  am 
unfit  even  for  ordinary  conversation  till  I  have  read  these 
letters." 

They  demurred  a  little :  and  indeed  the  danger  of 
delay  seemed  obvious ;  but  the  sight  of  my  distress, 
which  I  was  unable  entirely  to  control,  appealed  strongly 
to  their  good-nature ;  and  I  was  suffered  at  last  to  get  by 
myself  on  deck,  where,  by  the  light  of  a  lantern  smug- 
gled under  shelter  of  the  low  rail,  I  read  the  following 
wretched  correspondence. 

"  My  dear  Loudon,"  ran  the  first,  "  this  will  be  handed 
you  by  your  friend  Speedy  of  the  Catamount.  His  ster- 
ling character  and   loyal   devotion  to  yourself   pointed 


I  TURN  SMUGGLER,   THE  CAPTAIN  CASUIST.      323 

him  out  as  the  best  man  for  our  purposes  in  Hono- 
liilu  —  the  parties  on  the  spot  being  difficult  to  manip- 
ulate. A  man  called  Billy  Fowler  (3"ou  must  have 
heard  of  Billy)  is  the  boss ;  he  is  in  politics  some,  and 
squares  the  officers.  I  have  hard  times  before  me  in  the 
city,  but  I  feel  as  bright  as  a  dollar  and  as  strong  as 
John  L.  Sullivan.  What  with  Mamie  here,  and  my  part- 
ner speeding  over  the  seas,  and  the  bonanza  in  the  wreck, 
I  feel  like  I  could  juggle  with  the  Pyramids  of  Egypt, 
same  as  conjurers  do  with  aluminium  balls.  My  earnest 
prayers  follow  j^ou,  Loudon,  that  you  maj^  feel  the  way 
I  do  — just  inspired  !  My  feet  don't  touch  the  ground; 
I  kind  of  swim.  Mamie  is  like  Moses  and  AarTJn  that 
held  up  the  other  individual's  arms.  She  carries  me 
along  like  a  horse  and  buggy.  I  am  beating  the  record. 
''  Your  true  partner, 

"J.  PiNKERTON." 

Number  two  was  in  a  different  style  :  — 

"My  dearest  Loudon,  how  am  I  to  prepare  you  for 
this  dire  intelligence  ?  0  dear  me,  it  will  strike  you 
to  the  earth.  The  Fiat  has  gone  forth ;  our  firm  went 
bust  at  a  quarter  before  twelve.  It  Avas  a  bill  of 
Bradley's  (for  $200)  that  brought  these  vast  operations 
to  a  close,  and  evolved  liabilities  of  upwards  of  two 
hundred  and  fifty  thousand.  0,  the  shame  and  pity  of 
it !  and  you  but  three  weeks  gone  !  Loudon,  don't  blame 
your  partner :  if  human  hands  and  brains  could  have 
sufficed,  I  would  have  held  the  thing  together.     But  it 


324  THE   WRECKER. 

just  slowly  crumbled ;  Bradley  was  the  last  kick,  but  the 
blamed  business  just  melted.  I  give  the  liabilities ;  it's 
supposed  they're  all  in ;  for  the  cowards  were  waiting, 
and  the  claims  were  filed  like  taking  tickets  to  hear 
Patti.  I  don't  quite  have  the  hang  of  the  assets  yet, 
our  interests  were  so  extended ;  but  I  am  at  it  day  and 
night,  and  I  guess  will  make  a  creditable  dividend.  If 
the  wreck  pans  out  only  half  the  way  it  ought,  we'll 
turn  the  laugh  still.  I  am  as  full  of  grit  and  work  as 
ever,  and  just  tower  above  our  troubles.  Mamie  is  a 
host  in  herself.  Somehow  I  feel  like  it  was  only  me 
that  had  gone  bust,  and  you  and  she  soared  clear  of  it. 
Hurry  up.     That's  all  you  have  to  do. 

"  Yours  ever, 

"J.  PiNKERTON." 

The  third  was  yet  more  altered :  — 

"My  poor  Loudon,"  it  began,  "I  labour  far  into  the 
night  getting  our  affairs  in  order;  you  could  not  believe 
their  vastness  and  complexity.  Douglas  B.  Longhurst 
said  humorously  that  the  receiver's  work  would  be  cut 
out  for  him.  I  cannot  deny  that  some  of  them  have  a 
speculative  look.  God  forbid  a  sensitive,  refined  spirit 
like  yours  should  ever  come  face  to  face  with  a  Com- 
missioner in  Bankruptcy ;  these  men  get  all  the  sweet- 
ness knocked  right  out  of  them.  But  I  could  bear  up 
better  if  it  weren't  for  press  comments.  Often  and 
often,  Loudon,  I  recall  to  mind  your  most  legitimate 
critiques  of  the  press  system.     They  published  an  in- 


T  TURN  SMUGGLER,  THE  CAPTAIN  CASUIST.      325 

terview  with  me,  not  the  least  like  what  I  said,  and  with 
jeering  comments ;  it  would  make  your  blood  boil,  it 
was  literally  inhumane;  I  wouldn't  have  written  it  about 
a  yellow  dog  that  was  in  trouble  like  what  I  am.  Mamie 
just  winced,  the  first  time  she  has  turned  a  hair  right 
through  the  whole  catastrophe.  How  wonderfully  true 
was  what  you  said  long  ago  in  Paris,  about  touching  on 
people's  personal  appearance !  The  fellow  said — "  And 
then  these  words  had  been  scored  through;  and  my 
distressed  friend  turned  to  another  subject.  "  I  cannot 
bear  to  dwell  upon  our  assets.  They  simply  don't  show 
up.  Even  Thirteen  Star,  as  sound  a  line  as  can  be  pro- 
duced upon  this  coast,  goes  begging.  The  wreck  has 
thrown  a  blight  on  all  we  ever  touched.  And  where's 
the  use  ?  God  never  made  a  wreck  big  enough  to  fill 
our  deficit.  I  am  haunted  by  the  thought  that  you  may 
blame  me ;  I  know  how  I  despised  your  remonstrances. 
O,  Loudon,  don't  be  hard  on  your  miserable  partner. 
The  funny-dog  business  is  what  kills.  I  fear  your  stern 
rectitude  of  mind  like  the  eye  of  God.  I  cannot  think 
but  what  some  of  my  books  seem  mixed  up  ;  otherwise, 
I  don't  seem  to  see  my  way  as  plain  as  I  could  wish  to. 
Or  else  my  brain  is  gone  soft.  Loudon,  if  there  should 
be  any  unpleasantness,  you  can  trust  me  to  do  the  right 
thing  and  keep  you  clear.  I've  been  telling  them 
already,  how  you  had  no  business  grip  and  never  saw 
the  books.  0,  I  trust  I  have  done  right  in  this !  I 
knew  it  was  a  liberty  ;  I  know  you  may  justly  complain  ; 


326  TUE   WRECKER. 

but  it  was  some  things  that  were  said.  And  mind  you, 
all  legitimate  business  !  Not  even  your  shrinking  sen- 
sitiveness could  find  fault  with  the  first  look  of  one  of 
them,  if  they  had  panned  out  right.  And  you  know, 
the  Flying  Scud  was  the  biggest  gamble  of  the  crowd, 
and  that  was  your  own  idea.  Mamie  says  she  never 
could  bear  to  look  you  in  the  face,  if  that  idea  had  been 
mine  ;  she  is  so  conscientious  ! 

"  Your  broken-hearted 

"Jim." 

The  last  began  without  formality  :  — 

"  This  is  the  end  of  me  commercially.  I  give  up  ;  my 
nerve  is  gone.  I  suppose  I  ought  to  be  glad;  for  we're 
through  the  court.  I  don't  know  as  ever  I  knew  how, 
and  I'm  sure  I  don't  remember.  If  it  pans  out  —  the 
wreck,  I  mean  —  we'll  go  to  Europe,  and  live  on 
the  interest  of  our  money.  No  more  work  for  me.  I 
shake  when  people  speak  to  me.  I  have  gone  on,  hoping 
and  hoping,  and  working  and  working,  and  the  lead 
has  pinched  right  out.  I  want  to  lie  on  my  back  in  a 
garden,  and  read  Shakespeare  and  E.  P.  Eoe.  Don't 
suppose  it's  cowardice,  Loudon.  I'm  a  sick  man.  Kest 
is  what  I  must  have.  I've  worked  hard  all  my  life ;  I 
never  spared  myself;  every  dollar  I  ever  made,  I've 
coined  my  brains  for  it.  I've  never  done  a  mean  thing ; 
I've  lived  respectable,  and  given  to  the  poor.  "Who  has 
a  better  right  to  a  holiday  than  I  have  ?  And  I  mean 
to  have  a  year  of  it  straight  out ;  and  if  I  don't,  I  shall 


I  TURN  SMUGGLER,    THE  CAPTAIN  CASUIST.      327 

lie  right  down  here  in  my  tracks,  and  die  of  worry  and 
brain  trouble.  Don't  mistake.  That's  so.  If  there  are 
any  pickings  at  all,  trust  Speedy;  don't  let  the  creditors 
get  wind  of  what  there  is.  I  helped  you  when  you 
were  down;  help  me  now.  Don't  deceive  yourself; 
you've  got  to  help  me  right  now,  or  never.  I  am 
clerking,  and  not  Jit  to  cypher.  Mamie  's  type-writing 
at  the  Phoenix  Guano  Exchange,  down  town.  The  light 
is  right  out  of  my  life.  I  know  you'll  not  like  to  do 
what  I  propose.  Think  only  of  this  ;  that  it's  life  or 
death  for  **Jim  Pinkerton. 

"P.S.  Our  figure  was  seven  per  cent.  0,  what  a 
fall  was  there !  Well,  well,  it's  past  mending ;  I  don't 
want  to  whine.  But,  Loudon,  I  do  want  to  live.  No 
more  ambition;  all  I  ask  is  life.  I  have  so  much  to 
make  it  sweet  to  me !  I  am  clerking,  and  itseless  at 
that.  I  know  I  would  have  fired  such  a  clerk  inside 
of  forty  minutes,  in  my  time.  But  my  time's  over.  I 
can  only  cling  on  to  you.     Don't  fail 

"Jim  Pinkertox." 

There  was  yet  one  more  postscript,  yet  one  more 
outburst  of  self-pity  and  pathetic  adjuration;  and  a 
doctor's  opinion,  unpromising  enough,  was  besides  en- 
closed. I  pass  them  both  in  silence.  1  think  shame  to 
have  shown,  at  so  great  length,  the  half-baked  virtues 
of  my  friend  dissolving  in  the  crucible  of  sickness  and 
distress ;  and  the  effect  upon  my  spirits  can  be  judged 


328  THE   WRECKER. 

already.  I  got  to  my  feet,  when  I  had  done,  drew  a 
deep  breath,  and  stared  hard  at  Honolulu.  One  moment 
the  world  seemed  at  an  end ;  the  next,  I  was  conscious 
of  a  rush  of  independent  energy.  On  Jim  I  could  rely 
no  longer;  I  must  now  take  hold  myself.  I  must  decide 
and  act  on  my  own  better  thoughts. 

The  word  was  easy  to  say ;  the  thing,  at  the  first 
blush,  was  undiscoverable.  I  was  overwhelmed  with 
miserable,  womanish  pity  for  my  broken  friend;  his 
outcries  grieved  my  spirit ;  I  saw  him  then  and  now  — 
then,  so  invincible ;  now,  brought  so  low  —  and  knew 
neither  how  to  refuse,  nor  how  to  consent  to  his  pro- 
posal. The  remembrance  of  my  father,  who  had  fallen 
in  the  same  field  unstained,  the  image  of  his  monument 
incongruously  rising,  a  fear  of  the  law,  a  chill  air  that 
seemed  to  blow  upon  my  fancy  from  the  doors  of 
prisons,  and  the  imaginary  clank  of  fetters,  recalled  me 
to  a  different  resolve.  And  then  again,  the  wails  of 
my  sick  partner  intervened.  So  I  stood  hesitating,  and 
yet  with  a  strong  sense  of  capacity  behind:  sure,  if  I 
could  but  choose  my  path,  that  I  should  walk  in  it  with 
resolution. 

Then  I  remembered  that  I  had  a  friend  on  board,  and 
stepped  to  the  companion. 

"  Gentlemen,"  said  I,  "  only  a  few  moments  more  :  but 
these,  I  rerjret  to  say,  I  must  make  more  tedious  still  by 
removing  your  companion.  It  is  indispensable  that  I 
should  have  a  word  or  two  with  Captain  Nares." 


I  TURN  SMUGGLER,  THE  CAPTAIN  CASUIST.      329 

Both  the  smugglers  were  afoot  at '  once,  protesting. 
The  business,  they  declared,  must  be  despatched  at  once ; 
they  had  run  risk  enough,  with  a  conscience ;  and  they 
must  either  finish  now,  or  go. 

"  The  choice  is  yours,  gentlemen,"  said  I,  "  and,  I  be- 
lieve, the  eagerness.  I  am  not  yet  sure  that  I  have  any- 
thing in  your  way ;  even  if  I  have,  there  are  a  hundred 
things  to  be  considered ;  and  I  assure  you  it  is  not  at  all 
my  habit  to  do  business  with  a  pistol  to  my  head." 

"  That  is  all  very  proper,  Mr.  Dodd ;  there  is  no  wish 
to  coerce  you,  believe  me,"  said  Fowler ;  ''  only,  please 
consider  our  position.  It  is  really  dangerous ;  we  were 
not  the  only  people  to  see  your  schooner  off  Waimanolo." 

''  Mr.  Fowler,"  I  replied,  "  I  was  not  born  yesterday. 
Will  you  allow  me  to  express  an  opinion,  in  which  I  may 
be  quite  wrong,  but  to  which  I  am  entirely  wedded  ?  If 
the  custom-house  officers  had  been  coming,  they  would 
have  been  here  now.  In  other  words,  somebody  is  work- 
ing the  oracle,  and  (for  a  good  guess)  his  name  is 
Fowler." 

Both  men  laughed  loud  and  long ;  and  being  supplied 
with  another  bottle  of  Longhurst's  champagne,  suffered 
the  captain  and  myself  to  leave  them  without  further 
word. 

I  gave  Nares  the  correspondence,  and  he  skimmed  it 
through. 

"  Now,  captain,"  said  I,  *'  I  want  a  fresh  mind  on  this. 
What  does  it  mean  ?  " 


330  THE   WEECKER. 

"It's  large  enough  text,"  replied  tlie  captain.  "It 
means  you're  to  stake  your  pile  on  Speedy,  hand  him 
over  all  you  can,  and  hold  your  tongue.  I  almost  wish 
you  hadn't  shown  it  me,"  he  added,  wearily.  "  What 
with  the  specie  from  the  wreck  and  the  opium  money,  it 
comes  to  a  biggish  deal." 

"  That's  supposing  that  I  do  it  ?  "  said  I. 

"  Exactly,"  said  he,  "  supposing  you  do  it." 

"  And  there  are  pros  and  cons  to  that,"  I  observed. 

"  There's  San  Quentin,  to  start  in  with,"  said  the 
captain ;  "  and  suppose  you  clear  the  penitentiary,  there's 
the  nasty  taste  in  the  mouth.  The  figure's  big  enough 
to  make  bad  trouble,  but  it's  not  big  enough  to  be 
picturesque ;  and  I  should  guess  a  man  always  feels 
kind  of  small  who  has  sold  himself  under  six  cyphers. 
That  would  be  my  way,  at  least ;  there's  an  excitement 
about  a  million  that  might  carry  me  on ;  but  the  other 
way,  I  should  feel  kind  of  lonely  when  I  woke  in  bed. 
Then  there's  Speedy.     Do  you  know  him  well  ?  " 

"No,  I  do  not,"  said  I. 

"Well,  of  course  he  can  vamoose  with  the  entire 
speculation,  if  he  chooses,"  pursued  the  captain,  "and 
if  he  don't  I  can't  see  but  what  you've  got  to  support 
and  bed  and  board  with  him  to  the  end  of  time.  I 
guess  it  would  weary  me.  Then  there's  Mr.  Pinkerton, 
of  course.  He's  been  a  good  friend  to  you,  hasn't  he  ? 
Stood  by  you,  and  all  that  ?  and  pulled  you  through 
for  all  he  was  worth  ?  " 


I  TURN  SMUGGLER,  THE  CAPTAIN   CASUIST.      331 

"  That  he  has,"  I  cried ;  "  I  could  never  begin  telling 
you  my  debt  to  him  ! " 

"Well,  and  that's  a  consideration,"  said  the  captain. 
"As  a  matter  of  principle,  I  wouldn't  look  at  this 
business  at  the  money.  ^  JSTot  good  enough,'  would  be 
my  word.  But  even  principle  goes  under  when  it  comes 
to  friends  —  the  right  sort,  I  mean.  This  Pinkerton  is 
frightened,  and  he  seems  sick ;  the  medico  don't  seem 
to  care  a  cent  about  his  state  of  health;  and  you've 
got  to  figure  how  you  would  like  it,  if  he  came  to  die. 
Eemember,  the  risk  of  this  little  swindle  is  all  yours; 
it's  no  sort  of  risk  to  Mr.  Pinkerton.  Well,  j^ou've 
got  to  put  it  that  Avay  plainl}^,  and  see  how  you  like 
the  sound  of  it:  my  friend  Pinkerton  is  in  danger  of 
the  New  Jerusalem,  I  am  in  danger  of  San  Quentiu ; 
which  risk  do  I  propose  to  run  ?  " 

"That's  an  ugly  way  to  put  it,"  I  objected,  "and 
perhaps  hardly  fair.  There's  right  and  wrong  to  be 
considered." 

"Don't  know  the  parties,"  replied  Nares;  "and  I'm 
coming  to  them,  anyway.  Por  it  strikes  me,  when  it 
came  to  smuggling  opium,  you  walked  right  up  ?  " 

"  So  I  did,"  I  said  ;  "  sick  I  am  to  have  to  say  it !  " 

"All  the  same,"  continued  ISTares,  "you  went  into  the 
opium-smuggling  with  your  head  down ;  and  a  good 
deal  of  fussing  I've  listened  to,  that  you  hadn't  more 
of  it  to  smuggle.  Xow,  maybe  your  partner's  not  quite 
fixed  the  same  as  you  are;  maybe  he  sees  precious  little 
difference  between  the  one  thing  and  the  other." 


332  THE   WRECKER. 

"  You  could  not  say  truer :  he  sees  none,  I  do  believe," 
cried  I ;  "  and  though  I  see  one,  I  could  never  tell  you 
how." 

"  We  never  can,"  said  the  oracular  Nares ;  "  taste  is 
all  a  matter  of  opinion.  But  the  point  is,  how  will  your 
friend  take  it  ?  You  refuse  a  favour,  and  you  take  the 
high  horse  at  the  same  time  ;  you  disappoint  him,  and 
you  rap  him  over  the  knuckles.  It  won't  do,  Mr.  Dodd ; 
no  friendship  can  stand  that.  You  must  be  as  good 
as  your  friend,  or  as  bad  as  your  friend,  or  start  on  a 
fresh  deal  Avithout  him." 

"  I  don't  see  it !  "  said  I.     "  You  don't  know  Jim !  " 

"  Well,  you  will  see,"  said  Nares.  "  And  now,  here's 
another  point.  This  bit  of  money  looks  mighty  big  to 
Mr.  Pinkerton ;  it  may  spell  life  or  health  to  him ;  but 
among  all  your  creditors,  I  don't  see  that  it  amounts  to  a 
hill  of  beans  —  I  don't  believe  it'll  pay  their  car-fares  all 
round.  And  don't  you  think  you'll  ever  get  thanked. 
Y"ou  were  known  to  pay  a  long  price  for  the  chance  of 
rummaging  that  wreck ;  you  do  the  rummaging,  you 
come  home,  and  you  hand  over  ten  thousand  —  or  twenty, 
if  you  like  —  a  part  of  which  you'll  have  to  own  up  you 
made  by  smuggling ;  and,  mind  !  you'll  never  get  Billy 
Fowler  to  stick  his  name  to  a  receipt.  Now,  just  glance 
at  the  transaction  from  the  outside,  and  see  Avhat  a  clear 
case  it  makes.  Your  ten  thousand  is  a  sop  ;  and  people 
will  only  wonder  you  were  so  damned  impudent  as  to 
offer  such  a  small    one !      Whichever  way  you  take  it, 


I  TURN  SMUGGLER,   THE  CAPTAIN  CASUIST.      333 

Mr.  Dodd,  the  bottom's  out  of  your  character ;  so  there's 
one  thing  less  to  be  considered." 

"  I  daresay  you'll  scarce  believe  me,"  said  I,  "  but  I 
feel  that  a  positive  relief." 

"  You  must  be  made  some  way  different  from  me, 
then,"  returned  Nares.  "And,  talking  about  me,  I  might 
just  mention  how  I  stand.  You'll  have  no  trouble  from 
me  —  you've  trouble  enough  of  your  own ;  and  I'm  friend 
enough,  when  a  friend's  in  need,  to  shut  my  eyes  and 
go  right  where  he  tells  me.  All  the  same,  I'm  rather 
queerly  fixed.  My  owners'll  have  to  rank  with  the  rest 
on  their  charter-party.  Here  am  I,  their  representative  ! 
and  I  have  to  look  over  the  ship's  side  while  the  bank- 
rupt walks  his  assets  ashore  in  Mr.  Speedy's  hat-box. 
It's  a  thing  I  wouldn't  do  for  James  G.  Blaine  ;  but 
I'll  do  it  for  you,  Mr.  Dodd,  and  only  sorry  I  can't  do 
more." 

"  Thank  you,  captain ;  my  mind  is  made  up,"  said  I. 
"I'll  go  straight,  ?n<a^  coe/«m.'  I  never  u^nderstood  that 
old  tag  before  to-night." 

"  I  hope  it  isn't  my  business  that  decides  you  ?  "  asked 
the  captain. 

"  I'll  never  deny  it  was  an  element,"  said  I.  "  I  hope, 
I  hope  I'm  not  qpwardly ;  I  hope  I  could  steal  for  Jim 
myself ;  but  when  it  comes  to  dragging  in  3'ou  and 
Speedy,  and  this  one  and  the  other,  why,  Jim  has  got 
to  die,  and  there's  an  end.  I'll  try  and  work  for  him 
when  I  get  to  'Frisco,  I  suppose ;  and  I  suppose  I'll 


334  THE   WRECKER. 

fail,  and  look  on  at  his  death,  and  kick  myself:  it  can't 
be  helped —  I'll  fight  it  on  this  line." 

"I  don't  say  as  you're  wrong,"  replied  Kares,  *'and 
I'll  be  hanged  if  I  know  if  you're  right.  It  suits  me 
anyway.  And  look  here — hadn't  you  better  just  show 
our  friends  over  the  side  ?  "  he  added ;  "  no  good  of  being 
at  the  risk  and  worry  of  smuggling  for  the  benefit  of 
creditors." 

"I  don't  think  of  the  creditors,"  said  I.  "But  I've 
kept  this  pair  so  long,  I  haven't  got  the  brass  to  fire 
them  now." 

Indeed,  I  believe  that  was  my  only  reason  for  enter- 
ing uj^on  a  transaction  which  was  now  outside  my  inter- 
est, but  which  (as  it  chanced)  repaid  me  fifty-fold  in 
entertainment.  Fowler  and  Sharpe  were  both  preter- 
naturally  sharp ;  they  did  me  the  honour  in  the  begin- 
ning to  attribute  to  myself  their  proper  vices ;  and 
before  we  were  done  had  grown  to  regard  me  with  an 
esteem  akin  to  worship.  This  proud  position  I  attained 
by  no  more  recondite  arts,  than  telling  the  mere  truth 
and  unaifectedly  displaying  my  indifference  to  the 
result.  I  have  doubtless  stated  the  essentials  of  all 
good  diplomacy,  which  may  be  rather  regarded,  there- 
fore, as  a  grace  of  state,  than  the  effect  of  management. 
For  to  tell  the  truth  is  not  in  itself  diplomatic,  and  to 
have  no  care  for  the  result  a  thing  involv\ntary.  When 
I  mentioned,  for  instance,  that  I  had  but  two  hundrea 
and  forty  pound  of  drug,  my  smugglers  exchanged  mean- 


I  TURN   SMUGGLER,  THE  CAPTAIN  CASUIST.      335 

ing  glances,  as  who  should  say,  "Here  is  a  foeman 
worthy  of  our  steel !  "  But  when  I  carelessly  proposed 
thirty -five  dollars  a  pound,  as  an  amendment  to  their 
offered  twenty,  and  wound  up  with  the  remark:  "The 
whole  thing  is  a  matter  of  moonshine  to  me,  gentlemen. 
Take  it  or  want  it,  and  fill  your  glasses  "  —  I  had  the 
indescribable  gratification  to  see  Sharpe  nudge  Fowler 
warningly,  and  Fowler  choke  down  the  jovial  acceptance 
that  stood  ready  on  his  lips,  and  lamely  substitute  a 
"No — no  more  wine,  please,  Mr.  Dodd  !"  Nor  was  this 
all:  for  when  the  affair  was  settled  at  fifty  dollars  a 
pound  —  a  shrewd  stroke  of  business  for  my  creditors  — 
and  our  friends  had  got  on  board  their  whaleboat  and 
shoved  off,  it  appeared  they  were  imperfectly  acquainted 
with  the  conveyance  of  sound  upon  still  water,  and  I 
had  the  joy  to  overhear  the  following  testimonial. 

"Deep  man,  that  Dodd,"  said  Sharpe. 

And  the  bass-toned  Fowler  echoed,  "Damned  if  I 
understand  his  game," 

Thus  we  were  left  once  more  alone  upon  the  Norah 
Creina;  and  the  news  of  the  night,  and  the  lamen- 
tations of  Pinkerton,  and  tlxe  thought  of  my  own 
harsh  decision,  returned  and  besieged  me  in  the  dark. 
According  to  all  the  rubbish  I  had  read,  I  should 
have  been  sustained  by  the  warm  consciousness  of 
virtue.  Alas,  I  had  but  the  one  feeling :  that  I  had  sac- 
rificed my  sick  friend  to  the  fear  of  prison-cells  and 


336  THE   WKECKEE. 

stupid  starers.  And  no  moralist  has  yet  advanced  so 
far  as  to  number  cowardice  amongst  the  things  that 
are  their  own  reward. 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

LIGHT   FROM   THE   MAN    OF   WAR. 

In  the  early  sunlight  of  the  next  day,  we  tossed  close 
off  the  buoy  and  saw  the  city  sparkle  in  its  groves  about 
the  foot  of  the  Punch-bowl,  and  the  masts  clustering 
thick  in  the  small  harbour.  A  good  breeze,  which  had 
risen  with  the  sea,  carried  us  triumphantly  through  the 
intricacies  of  the  passage ;  and  we  had  soon  brought  up 
not  far  from  the  landing-stairs.  I  remember  to  have 
remarked  an  ugly  horned  reptile  of  a  modern  warship 
in  the  usual  moorings  across  the  port,  but  my  mind  was 
so  profoundly  plunged  in  melancholy  that  I  paid  no  heed. 

Indeed,  I  had  little  time  at  my  disposal.  Messieurs 
Sharpe  and  Fowler  had  left  the  night  before  in  the  per- 
suasion that  I  was  a  liar  of  the  first  magnitude ;  the 
genial  belief  brought  them  aboard  again  with  the  earliest 
opportunity,  proffering  help  tc  one  who  had  proved  how 
little  he  required  it,  and  hospitality  to  so  respectable  a 
character.     I  had  business  to  mind,  I  had  some  need 


LIGHT   FROM   THE   MAN   OF   WAE.  337 

both  of  assistance  and  diversion;  I  liked  Fowler  —  I 
don't  know  why ;  and  in  short,  I  let  them  do  with  me  as 
they  desired.  No  creditor  intervening,  I  spent  the  first 
half  of  the  day  inquiring  into  the  conditions  of  the  tea 
and  silk  market  under  the  auspices  of  Sharpe ;  lunched 
with  him  in  a  private  apartment  at  the  Hawaiian  Hotel 
—  for  Sharpe  was  a  teetotaler  in  public  ;  and  about  four 
in  the  afternoon  was  delivered  into  the  hands  of  Fowler. 
This  gentleman  owned  a  bungalow  on  the  Waikiki  beach ; 
and  there  in  company  with  certain  young  bloods  of  Hono- 
lulu, I  was  entertained  to  a  sea-bathe,  indiscriminate 
cocktails,  a  dinner,  a  hula-hula,  and  (to  round  off  the 
night),  poker  and  assorted  liquors.  To  lose  money  iu 
the  small  hours  to  pale,  intoxicated  youth,  has  always 
appeared  to  me  a  pleasure  overrated.  In  my  then  frame 
of  mind,  I  confess  I  found  it  even  delightful ;  put  up  my 
money  (or  rather  my  creditors'),  and  put  down  Fowler's 
champagne  with  equal  avidity  and  success ;  and  awoke 
the  next  morning  to  a  mild  headache  and  the  rather 
agreeable  lees  of  the  last  night's  excitement.  The  young 
bloods,  many  of  whom  were  still  far  from  sober,  had 
taken  the  kitchen  into  their  own  hands,  vice  the  China- 
man deposed ;  and  since  each  was  engaged  upon  a  dish 
of  his  own,  and  none  had  the  least  scruple  in  demolish- 
ing his  neighbour's  handiwork,  I  became  early  convinced 
that  many  eggs  would  be  broken  and  few  omelets  made. 
The  discovery  of  a  jug  of  milk  and  a  crust  of  bread 
enabled  me  to  stay  my  appetite ;  and  since  it  was  Suu- 


338  THE   WRECKER. 

day,  wlien  no  business  could  be  done,  and  the  festivities 
were  to  be  renewed  that  night  in  the  abode  of  Fowler,  it 
occurred  to  me  to  slip  silently  away  and  enjoy  some  air 
and  solitude. 

I  turned  seaward  under  the  dead  crater  known  as 
Diamond  Head.  My  way  was  for  some  time  under  the 
shade  of  certain  thickets  of  green,  thorny  trees,  dotted 
with  houses.  Here  I  enjoyed  some  pictures  of  the 
native  life:  wide-eyed,  naked  children,  mingled  with 
pigs;  a  youth  asleep  under  a  tree;  an  old  gentleman 
spelling  through  glasses  his  Hawaiian  Bible ;  the  some- 
what embarrassing  spectacle  of  a  lady  at  her  bath  in  a 
spring ;  and  the  glimpse  of  gaudy-coloured  gowns  in  the 
deep  shade  of  the  houses.  Thence  I  found  a  road  along 
the  beach  itself,  wading  in  sand,  opposed  and  buffeted 
by  the  whole  weight  of  the  Trade :  on  one  hand,  the 
glittering  and  sounding  surf,  and  the  bay  lively  with 
many  sails;  on  the  other,  precipitous,  arid  gullies  and 
sheer  cliffs,  mounting  towards  the  crater  and  the  blue 
sky.  For  all  the  companionship  of  skimming  vessels, 
the  place  struck  me  with  a  sense  of  solitude.  There 
came  in  my  head  what  I  had  been  told  the  day  before 
at  dinner,  of  a  cavern  above  in  the  bowels  of  the  volcano, 
a  place  only  to  be  visited  with  the  light  of  torches,  a 
treasure-house  of  the  bones  of  priests  and  warriors,  and 
clamorous  with  the  voice  of  an  unseen  river  pouring 
seaward  through  the  crannies  of  the  mountain.  At  the 
thought,  it  was  revealed  to  me  suddenly,  how  the  bun- 


LIGHT   FROM  THE   MAN   OF   WAR.  339 

galows,  and  the  Fowlers,  and  the  bright,  busy  town  and 
crowding  ships,  were  all  children  of  yesterday ;  and  for 
centuries  before,  the  obscure  life  of  the  natives,  with 
its  glories  and  ambitions,  its  joys  and  crimes  and  agonies, 
had  rolled  unseen,  like  the  mountain  river,  in  that  sea- 
girt place.  Not  Chaldea  appeared  more  ancient,  nor  the 
Pyramids  of  Egypt  more  abstruse ;  and  I  heard  time 
measured  by  "  the  drums  and  tramplings  "  of  immemo- 
rial conquests,  and  saw  myself  the  creature  of  an  hour. 
Over  the  bankruptcy  of  Pinkerton  and  Dodd  of  Montana 
Block,  S.  P.,  and  the  conscientious  troubles  of  the  junior 
partner,  the  spirit  of  eternity  was  seen  to  smile. 

To  this  mood  of  philosophic  sadness,  my  excesses  of 
the  night  before  no  doubt  contributed ;  for  more  things 
than  virtue  are  at  times  their  own  reward:  but  I  was 
greatly  healed  at  least  of  my  distresses.  And  while  I 
was  yet  enjoying  my  abstracted  humour,  a  turn  of  the 
beach  brought  me  in  view  of  the  signal-station,  with  its 
watch-house  and  flag-staff,  perched  on  the  immediate 
margin  of  a  cliff.  The  house  was  new  and  clean  and 
bald,  and  stood  naked  to  the  Trades.  The  wind  beat 
about  it  in  loud  squalls ;  the  seaward  windows  rattled 
without  mercy ;  the  breach  of  the  surf  below  contributed 
its  increment  of  noise ;  and  the  fall  of  my  foot  in  the 
narrow  verandah  passed  unheard  by  those  within. 

They  were  two  on  whom  I  thus  entered  unexpectedly : 
the  look-out  man,  with  grizzled  beard,  keen  seaman's 
eyes,  and  that  brand  on  his  countenance  that  comes  of 


340  THE   WRECKER. 

solitary  living ;  and  a  visitor,  an  oldish  oratorical  fellow, 
in  the  smart  tropical  array  of  the  British  man-o'-war's 
man,  perched  on  a  table,  and  smoking  a  cigar.  I  was 
made  pleasantly  welcome,  and  was  soon  listening  with 
amusement  to  the  sea-lawyer. 

"  No,  if  I  hadn't  have  been  born  an  Englishman,"  was 
one  of  his  sentiments,  "  damn  me !  I'd  rather  'a  been 
born  a  Frenchy !  I'd  like  to  see  another  nation  fit  to 
black  their  boots."  Presently  after,  he  developed  his 
views  on  home  politics  with  similar  trenchancy.  "I'd 
rather  be  a  brute  beast  than  what  I'd  be  a  liberal,"  ha 
said.  "  Carrying  banners  and  that !  a  pig's  got  more 
sense.  Why,  look  at  our  chief  engineer  —  they  do  say 
he  carried  a  banner  with  his  own  'ands :  *  Hooroar  for 
Gladstone  ! '  I  suppose,  or  '  Down  with  the  Aristocracy ! ' 
What  'arm  does  the  aristocracy  do  ?  Show  me  a  country 
any  good  without  one !  Not  the  States ;  why,  it's  the 
'ome  of  corruption!  I  knew  a  man — he  was  a  good 
man,  'ome  born  —  who  was  signal  quartermaster  in  the 
Wyandotte.  He  told  me  he  could  never  have  got  there, 
if  he  hadn't  have  'run  with  the  boys' — told  it  me  as 
I'm  telling  you.  Now  we're  all  British  subjects  here  —  " 
he  was  going  on. 

"  I  am  afraid  I  am  an  American,"  I  said  apologetically. 

He  seemed  the  least  bit  taken  aback,  but  recovered 
himself ;  and  with  the  ready  tact  of  his  betters,  paid  me 
the  usual  British  compliment  on  the  riposte.  "You 
don't  say  so!"   he  exclaimed.     "Well,  I  give  you  my 


LIGHT   FllOM   THE   MAN   OF   WAR.  341 

word  of  honour,  I'd  never  have  guessed  it.  Nobody 
could  tell  it  on  you,"  said  he,  as  though  it  were  some 
form  of  liquor. 

I  thanked  him,  as  I  always  do,  at  this  particular  stage, 
with  his  compatriots :  not  so  much  perhaps  for  the 
comjjlimeut  to  myself  and  my  poor  country,  as  for  the 
revelation  (which  is  ever  fresh  to  me)  of  Britannic  self- 
sufficiency  and  taste.  And  he  was  so  far  softened  by 
my  gratitude,  as  to  add  a  word  of  praise  on  the  American 
method  of  lacing  sails.  "  You're  ahead  of  us  in  lacing 
sails,"  he  said.  "You  can  say  that  with  a  clear  con- 
science." 

"  Thank  you,"  I  rei^lied.     "  I  shall  certainlj-  do  so." 

At  this  rate,  we  got  along  swimmingly ;  and  when  I 
rose  to  retrace  my  steps  to  the  Fowlery,  he  at  once 
started  to  his  feet  and  offered  me  the  welcome  solace  of 
his  company  for  the  return.  I  believe  I  discovered  much 
alacrity  at  the  idea ;  for  the  creature  (who  seemed  to  be 
unique,  or  to  represent  a  type  like  that  of  the  dodo) 
entertained  me  hugely.  But  when  he  had  produced 
his  hat,  I  found  I  was  in  the  way  of  more  than  enter- 
tainment ;  for  on  the  ribbon  I  could  read  the  legend : 
"H.  M.  S.  Tempest." 

"I  say,"  I  began,  when  our  adieus  were  paid,  and  we 
Were  scrambling  down  the  path  from  the  look-out,  "it 
Was  your  ship  that  picked  up  the  men  on  board  the 
Flying  Scud,  wasn't  it  ?  " 

"  You  may  say  so,"  said  he.     "  And  a  blessed  good  job 


342  THE  WRECKER. 

for  the  Flying-Scuds.  It's  a  God-forsaken  spot,  that 
Midway  Island." 

"  I've  just  come  from  there,"  said  I.  "  It  was  I  who 
bought  the  wreck," 

"  Beg  your  pardon,  sir,"  cried  the  sailor :  "  gen'lem'n 
in  the  white  schooner  ?  " 

"  The  same,"  said  I. 

My  friend  saluted,  as  though  we  were  now,  for  the 
first  time,  formally  introduced. 

"  Of  course,"  I  continued,  "  I  am  rather  taken  up  with 
the  whole  story;  and  I  wish  you  would  tell  me  what 
you  can  of  how  the  men  were  saved." 

"  It  was  like  this,"  said  he.  "  We  had  orders  to  call 
at  Midway  after  castaways,  and  had  our  distance  pretty 
nigh  run  down  the  day  before.  We  steamed  half-speed 
all  night,  looking  to  make  it  about  noon ;  for  old  Tootles 
—  beg  your  pardon,  sir  —  the  captain  —  was  precious 
scared  of  the  place  at  night.  Well,  there's  nasty,  filthy 
currents  round  that  Midway ;  you  know,  as  has  been  there ; 
and  one  on  'em  must  have  set  us  down.  Leastv/ays, 
about  six  bells,  when  we  had  ought  to  been  miles  away, 
some  one  sees  a  sail,  and  lo  and  be'old,  there  was  the 
spars  of  a  full-rigged  brig !  We  raised  her  pretty  fast, 
and  the  island  after  her;  and  made  out  she  was  hard 
aground,  canted  on  her  bilge,  and  had  her  ens'n  flying, 
union  down.  It  was  breaking  'igh  on  the  reef,  and  we 
laid  well  out,  and  sent  a  couple  of  boats.  I  didn't  go  in 
neither ;  only  stood  and  looked  on ;    but  it  seems  they 


LIGHT   FROM  THE   MAN   OF   WAR.  343 

was  all  badly  scared  and  muddled,  and  didn't  know 
which  end  was  uppermost.  One  on  'em  kep'  snivelling 
and  wringing  of  his  'ands ;  he  come  on  board  all  of  a 
sop  like  a  monthly  nurse.  That  Trent,  he  come  first, 
with  his  'and  in  a  bloody  rag.  I  was  near  'em  as  I  am 
to  you ;  and  I  could  make  out  he  was  all  to  bits  —  'eard 
his  breath  rattle  in  his  blooming  lungs  as  he  come  down 
the  ladder.  Yes,  they  was  a  scared  lot,  small  blame  to 
'em,  I  say !  The  next  after  Trent,  come  him  as  was 
mate." 

"  Goddedaal ! "  I  exclaimed. 

"  And  a  good  name  for  him,  too,"  chuckled  the  man-o'- 
war's  man,  who  probably  confounded  the  word  with  a 
familiar  oath.  "A  good  name,  too;  only  it  weren't 
his.  He  was  a  gen'lem'n  born,  sir,  as  had  gone  maske- 
werading.  One  of  our  officers  knowed  him  at  'ome, 
reckonises  him,  steps  up,  'olds  out  his  'and  right  off, 
and  says  he:  "Ullo,  ISTorrie,  old  chappie!'  he  says. 
The  other  was  coming  up,  as  bold  as  look  at  it ;  didn't 
seem  put  out  —  that's  where  blood  tells,  sir !  Well,  no 
sooner  does  he  'ear  his  born  name  given  him,  than  he 
turns  as  white  as  the  Day  of  Judgment,  stares  at  Mr. 
Sebright  like  he  was  looking  at  a  ghost,  and  then  (I 
give  you  my  word  of  honour)  turned  to,  and  doubled  up 
in  a  dead  faint.  '  Take  him  down  to  my  berth,'  says 
Mr.  Sebright.     '  'Tis  poor  old  Norrie  Carthew,'  he  says." 

"  And  what  —  what  sort  of  a  gentleman  was  this  Mr. 
Carthew  ?  "  I  gasped. 


344  THE   WRECKEH. 

"  The  ward-room  steward  told  me  he  was  come  of  the 
best  blood  in  England,"  was  my  friend's  reply :  "  Eton 
and  'Arrow  bred ;  — and  might  have  been  a  bar'net !  " 

"  Ko,  but  to  look  at  ?  "  I  corrected  him, 

"The  same  as  you  or  me,"  was  the  uncompromising 
answer :  "  not  much  to  look  at.  I  didn't  know  he  was 
a  gen'lem'n ;  but  then,  I  never  see  him  cleaned  up." 

"  How  was  that  ?  "  I  cried,  ''  0,  yes,  I  remember : 
he  was  sick  all  the  way  to  'Frisco,  was  he  not  ?  " 

"  Sick,  or  sorry,  or  something,"  returned  my  informant. 
"My  belief,  he  didn't  hanker  after  showing  iip.  He 
kep'  close ;  the  ward-room  steward,  what  took  his  meals 
in,  told  me  he  ate  nex'  to  nothing ;  and  he  was  fetched 
ashore  at  'Frisco  on  the  quiet.  Here  was  how  it  was. 
It  seems  his  brother  had  took  and  died,  him  as  had  the 
estate.  This  one  had  gone  in  for  his  beer,  by  what  I 
could  make  out ;  the  old  folks  at  'ome  had  turned  rusty ; 
no  one  knew  where  he  had  gone  to.  Here  he  was, 
slaving  in  a  merchant  brig,  shipwrecked  on  Midway, 
and  packing  up  his  duds  for  a  long  voyage  in  a  open 
boat.  He  comes  on  board  our  ship,  and  by  God,  here 
he  is  a  landed  proprietor,  and  may  be  in  Parliament 
to-morrow  !  It's  no  less  than  natural  he  should  keep 
dark :  so  would  you  and  me,  in  the  same  box." 

"  I  daresay,"  said  I.  "  But  you  saw  more  of  the 
others  ?  " 

"  To  be  sure,"  says  he :  "  no  'arm  in  them  from  what 
I  see.      There  was  one  'Ardy  there  :    colonial  born  he 


LIGHT    FROM    THE    MAN    OF    WAR.  345 

was,  and  had  been  tlirougli  a  power  of  money.  There 
was  no  nonsense  about  'Ardy ;  he  had  been  up,  and  he 
had  come  down,  and  took  it  so.  His  'eart  was  in  the 
right  place  ;  and  he  was  well  informed,  and  knew  French ; 
and  Latin,  I  believe,  like  a  native  !  I  liked  that  'Ardy  ; 
he  was  a  good-looking  boy,  too." 

"  Did  they  say  much  about  the  wreck  ?  "  I  asked. 

"  There  wasn't  much  to  say,  I  reckon,"  replied  the 
man-o'-war's  man.  "  It  was  all  in  the  papers.  'Ardy 
used  to  yarn  most  about  the  coins  he  had  gone  through  ; 
he  had  lived  with  book-makers,  and  jockeys,  and  pugs, 
and  actors,  and  all  that :  a  precious  low  lot ! "  added 
this  judicious  person.  "  But  it's  about  here  my  'orse 
is  moored,  and  by  your  leave  I'll  be  getting  ahead." 

"  One  moment,"  said  I.     "  Is  Mr.  Sebright  on  board  ?" 

"  No,  sir,  he's  ashore  to-day,"  said  the  sailor.  "  I  took 
up  a  bag  for  him  to  the  'otel." 

With  that  we  parted.  Presently  after  my  friend  over- 
took and  passed  me  on  a  hired  steed  which  seemed  to 
scorn  its  cavalier;  and  I  was  left  in  the  dust  of  his 
passage,  a  prey  to  whirling  thoughts.  For  I  now  stood, 
or  seemed  to  stand,  on  the  immediate  threshold  of  these 
mysteries.  I  knew  the  name  of  the  man  Dickson  —  his 
name  was  Carthew ;  I  knew  where  the  money  came  from 
that  opposed  us  at  the  sale  —  it  was  part  of  Carthew's 
inheritance ;  and  in  my  gallery  of  illustrations  to  the 
history  of  the  wreck,  one  more  picture  hung ;  perhaps 
the  most  dramatic  of  the  series.     It  showed  me  the  deck 


346  THE   WRECKER. 

of  a  "warship  in  that  distant  part  of  the  great  ocean,  the 
officers  and  seamen  looking  curiously  on ;  and  a  man  of 
birth  and  education,  who  had  been  sailing  under  an  alias 
on  a  trading  brig,  and  was  now  rescued  from  desperate 
peril,  felled  like  an  ox  by  the  bare  sound  of  his  own 
name.  I  could  not  fail  to  be  reminded  of  my  own  expe- 
rience at  the  Occidental  telephone.  The  hero  of  three 
styles,  Dickson,  Goddedaal,  or  Carthew,  must  be  the 
owner  of  a  lively  —  or  a  loaded  —  conscience,  and  the 
reflection  recalled  to  me  the  photograph  found  on  board 
the  Flying  Scud;  just  such  a  man,  I  reasoned,  would  be 
capable  of  just  such  starts  and  crises ;  and  I  inclined  to 
think  that  Goddedaal  (or  Carthew)  was  the  mainspring 
of  the  mystery. 

One  thing  was  plain :  as  long  as  the  Tempest  was  in 
reach,  I  must  make  the  acquaintance  of  both  Sebright 
and  the  doctor.  To  this  end,  I  excused  myself  with  Mr. 
Fowler,  returned  to  Honolulu,  and  passed  the  remainder 
of  the  day  hanging  vainly  rovmd  the  cool  verandahs  of  the 
hotel.  It  was  near  nine  o'clock  at  night  before  I  was 
rewarded. 

"That  is  the  gentleman  you  were  asking  for,"  said 
the  clerk. 

I  beheld  a  man  in  tweeds,  of  an  incomparable  languor 
of  demeanour,  and  carrying  a  cane  with  genteel  effort, 
From  the  name,  I  had  looked  to  find  a  sort  of  Viking 
and  young  ruler  of  the  battle  and  the  tempest ;  and  I  was 
the  more  disappointed,  and  not  a  little  alarmed,  to  come 
face  to  face  with  this  impracticable  type. 


LIGHT    FROM   THE   MAN    OF    WAR,  347 

"I  believe  I  have  the  pleasure  of  addressing  Lieuten- 
ant Sebright,"  said  I,  stepping  forward. 

"  Aw,  yes,"  replied  the  hero ;  ''  but,  aw  !  I  dawn't  knaw 
you,  do  I  ?  "  (He  spoke  for  all  the  world  like  Lord 
Foppington  in  the  old  play — a  proof  of  the  perennial 
nature  of  man's  affectations.  But  his  limping  dialect,  I 
scorn  to  continue  to  reproduce.) 

"It  was  with  the  intention  of  making  myself  known, 
that  I  have  taken  this  step,"  said  I,  entirely  unabashed 
(for  impudence  begets  in  me  its  like  —  perhaps  my  only 
martial  attribute).  "We  have  a  common  subject  of 
interest,  to  me  very  lively  ;  and  I  believe  I  may  be  in  a 
position  to  be  of  some  service  to  a  friend  of  yours  —  to 
give  him,  at  least,  some  very  welcome  information." 

The  last  clause  was  a  sop  to  my  conscience :  I  could 
not  pretend,  even  to  myself,  either  the  power  or  the  will 
to  serve  Mr.  Carthew ;  but  I  felt  sure  he  would  like  to 
hear  the  Flying  Scud  was  burned. 

"  I  don't  know  —  I  —  I  don't  understand  yovi,"  stam- 
mered my  victim.  "I  don't  have  any  friends  in  Hono- 
lulu, don't  you  know  ?  " 

"The  friend  to  whom  I  refer  is  English,"  I  replied. 
"  It  is  Mr.  Carthew,  whom  you  picked  up  at  Midway. 
My  firm  has  bought  the  wreck  ;  I  am  just  returned  from 
breaking  her  up ;  and  — to  make  my  business  quite  clear 
to  you  —  I  have  a  communication  it  is  necessary  I 
should  make  ;  and  have  to  trouble  you  for  Mr.  Carthew's 
address." 


348  THE    WliECKER. 

It  will  be  seen  how  rapidly  I  had  dropped  all  hope  of 
interesting  the  frigid  British  bear.  He,  on  his  side,  was 
plainly  on  thorns  at  my  insistence;  I  judged  he  was 
suffering  torments  of  alarm  lest  I  should  prove  an  unde- 
sirable acquaintance ;  diagnosed  him  for  a  shy,  dull,  vain, 
unamiable  animal,  without  adequate  defence  —  a  sort  of 
dishoused  snail ;  and  concluded,  rightly  enough,  that  he 
would  consent  to  anything  to  bring  our  interview  to  a 
conclusion.  A  moment  later,  he  had  fled,  leaving  with 
me  a  sheet  of  paper,  thus  inscribed  :  — 

Norris  Carthew, 

Stallhridge-le-  Carthew, 

Dorset. 

I  might  have  cried  victor^'",  the  field  of  battle  and 
some  of  the  enemy's  baggage  remaining  in  my  occupa- 
tion. As  a  matter  of  fact,  my  moral  sufferings  during 
the  engagment  had  rivalled  those  of  Mr.  Sebright ;  I 
was  left  incapable  of  fresh  hostilities ;  I  owned  that  the 
navy  of  old  England  was  (for  me)  invincible  as  of  yore  ; 
and  giving  up  all  thought  of  the  doctor,  inclined  to  sa- 
lute her  veteran  flag,  in  the  future,  from  a  prudent  dis- 
tance. Such  was  my  inclination,  when  I  retired  to  rest ; 
and  my  first  experience  the  next  morning  strengthened 
it  to  certainty.  For  I  had  the  pleasure  of  encounter- 
ing my  fair  antagonist  on  his  way  on  board;  and  he 
honoured  me  with  a  recognition  so  disgustingly  dry,  that 


LIGHT   FliOM  THE   MAN   OF   WAR.  349 

my  impatience  overflowed,  and  (recalling  the  tactics  of 
Nelson)  I  neglected  to  perceive  or  to  return  it. 

Judge  of  my  astonishment,  some  half-hour  later,  to 
receive  a  note  of  invitation  from  the  Tempest. 

"  Dear  Sir,"  it  began,  "  we  are  all  naturally  very 
much  interested  in  the  wreck  of  the  Flying  Scud,  and  as 
soon  as  I  mentioned  that  I  had  the  pleasure  of  making 
your  acquaintance,  a  very  general  Avish  was  expressed 
that  you  would  come  and  dine  on  board.  It  will  give 
us  all  the  greatest  pleasure  to  see  you  to-night,  or  in 
case  you  should  be  otherwise  engaged,  to  luncheon 
either  to-morrow  or  to-day."  A  note  of  the  hours  fol- 
lowed, and  the  document  wound  up  with  the  name  of 
"J.  Lascelles  Sebright,"  under  an  undeniable  statement 
that  he  was  sincerely  mine. 

"  No,  Mr.  Lascelles  Sebright,"  I  reflected,  "  you  are 
not,  but  I  begin  to  suspect  that  (like  the  lady  in  the 
song)  you  are  another's.  You  have  mentioned  your 
adventure,  my  friend;  you  have  been  blown  up ;  you 
have  got  your  orders ;  this  note  has  been  dictated ;  and 
I  am  asked  on  board  (in  spite  of  your  melancholy  pro- 
tests) not  to  meet  the  men,  and  not  to  talk  about  the 
Flying  Scud,  but  to  undergo  the  scrutiny  of  some  one 
interested  in  Carthew:  the  doctor,  for  a  Avager.  And  for 
a  second  wager,  all  this  springs  from  jour  facility  in 
giving  the  address."  I  lost  no  time  in  answering  the 
billet,  electing  for  the  earliest  occasion ;  and  at  the 
appointed  hour,  a  somewhat   blackguard-looking   boat's 


350  THE   WKECKER. 

crew  from  the  Norah  Creina  conveyed  me  under  the 
guns  of  the  Tempest. 

The  ward-room  appeared  pleased  to  see  me  ;  Sebright's 
brother  officers,  in  contrast  to  himself,  took  a  boyish 
interest  in  my  cruise;  and  much  was  talked  of  the 
Flying  Scud;  of  how  she  had  been  lost,  of  how  I  had 
found  her,  and  of  the  weather,  the  anchorage,  and  the 
currents  about  Midway  Island.  Carthew  was  referred 
to  more  than  once  without  embarrassment ;  the  parallel 
case  of  a  late  Earl  of  Aberdeen,  who  died  mate  on  board 
a  Yankee  schooner,  was  adduced.  If  they  told  me  little 
of  the  man,  it  was  because  they  had  not  much  to  tell, 
and  only  felt  an  interest  in  his  recognition  and  pity  for 
his  prolonged  ill-health.  I  could  never  think  the  subject 
was  avoided ;  and  it  was  clear  that  the  officers,  far  from 
practising  concealment,  had  nothing  to  conceal. 

So  far,  then,  all  seemed  natural,  and  yet  the  doctor 
troubled  me.  Tliis  was  a  tall,  rugged,  plain  man,  on  the 
wrong  side  of  fifty,  already  gray,  and  with  a  restless 
mouth  and  bushy  eyebrows  :  he  spoke  seldom,  but  then 
with  gaiety ;  and  his  great,  quaking,  silent  laughter  was 
infectious.  I  could  make  out  that  he  was  at  once  the 
quiz  of  the  ward-room  and  perfectly  respected;  and  I 
made  sure  that  he  observed  me  covertly.  It  is  certain 
I  returned  the  compliment.  If  Carthew  had  feigned 
sickness  —  and  all  seemed  to  point  in  that  direction  — 
here  was  the  man  who  knew  all  —  or  certainly  knew 
much.     His  strong,  sterling   face  progressively  and  si- 


LIGHT   FROM    THE   MAN    OF   WAR.  351 

lently  persuaded  of  his  full  knowledge.  That  was  not 
the  mouth,  these  were  not  the  eyes  of  one  who  would 
act  in  ignorance,  or  could  be  led  at  random.  Nor  again 
was  it  the  face  of  a  man  squeamish  in  the  case  of 
malefactors ;  there  was  even  a  touch  of  Brutus  there, 
and  something  of  the  hanging  judge.  In  short,  he 
seemed  the  last  character  for  the  part  assigned  him  in 
my  theories;  and  wonder  and  curiosity  contended  in 
my  mind. 

Luncheon  was  over,  and  an  adjournment  to  the  smok- 
ing-room proposed,  when  (upon  a  sudden  impulse)  I 
burned  my  ships,  and  pleading  indisposition,  requested 
to  consult  the  doctor. 

"  There  is  nothing  the  matter  with  my  body.  Dr. 
Urquart,"  said  I,  as  soon  as  we  were  alone. 

He  hummed,  his  mouth  worked,  he  regarded  me  stead- 
ily Avith  his  gray  eyes,  but  resolutely  held  his  peace. 

"  I  want  to  talk  to  you  about  the  Flying  Scud  and  Mr. 
Carthew,"  I  resumed.  "  Come  :  you  must  have  expected 
this.  I  am  sure  you  know  all ;  you  are  shrewd,  and 
must  have  a  guess  that  I  know  much.  How  are  we  to 
stand  to  one  another  ?  and  how  am  I  to  stand  to  Mr. 
Carthew  ?  " 

"I  do  not  fully  understand  you,"  he  replied,  after  a 
pause ;  and  then,  after  another :  "  It  is  the  spirit  I  refer 
to,  Mr.  Dodd." 

"The  spirit  of  my  inquiries  ?"  I  asked. 

He  nodded. 


352  THE  WEECKER. 

"I  think  we  are  at  cross-purposes,"  said  I.  "The 
spirit  is  precisely  what  I  came  in  quest  of.  I  bought  the 
Flying  Scud  at  a  ruinous  figure,  run  up  by  Mr.  Carthew 
through  an  agent;  and  1  am,  in  consequence,  a  bankrupt. 
But  if  I  have  found  no  fortune  in  the  wreck,  I  have 
found  unmistakable  evidences  of  foul  play.  Conceive 
my  position :  I  am  ruined  through  this  man,  whom  I 
never  saw ;  I  might  very  well  desire  revenge  or  compen- 
sation ;  and  I  think  you  will  admit  I  have  the  means  to 
extort  either." 

He  made  no  sign  in  answer  to  this  challenge, 

"Can  you  not  understand,  then,"  I  resumed,  "the 
spirit  in  which  I  come  to  one  who  is  surely  in  the  secret, 
and  ask  him,  honestly  and  plainly :  How  do  I  stand  to 
Mr.  Carthew  ?  " 

"I  must  ask  you  to  be  more  explicit,"  said  he. 

"You  do  not  help  me  much,"  I  retorted.  "But  see 
if  you  can  understand :  my  conscience  is  not  very  fine- 
spun ;  still,  I  have  one.  Now,  there  are  degrees  of  foul 
play,  to  some  of  which  I  have  no  particular  objection. 
I  am  sure  with  Mr.  Carthew,  I  am  not  at  all  the  person 
to  forego  an  advantage ;  and  I  have  much  curiosity. 
But  on  the  other  hand,  I  have  no  taste  for  perseciation ; 
and  I  ask  you  to  believe  that  I  am  not  the  man  to  make 
bad  worse,  or  heap  trouble  on  the  unfortunate." 

"  Yes ;  I  think  I  understand,"  said  he.  "  Suppose  I 
pass  you  my  word  that,  whatever  may  have  occurred, 
there  were  excuses  —  great  excuses  —  I  may  say,  very 
great  ?  " 


LIGHT    FUOM   THE   MAN    OF    WAR.  353 

"It  would  have  weight  with  me,  doctor,"  I  replied. 

"  I  may  go  further,"  he  pursued.  "  Suppose  I  had 
been  there  or  you  had  been  there :  after  a  certain  event 
had  taken  place,  it's  a  grave  question  what  we  might 
have  done  —  it's  even  a  question  what  we  could  have 
done  —  ourselves.  Or  take  me.  I  will  be  plain  with 
you,  and  own  that  I  am  in  possession  of  the  facts. 
You  have  a  shrewd  guess  how  I  have  acted  in  that 
knowledge.  May  I  ask  you  to  judge  from  the  character 
of  my  action,  something  of  the  nature  of  that  knov^d- 
edge,  which  I  have  no  call,  nor  yet  no  title,  to  share 
with  you  ?  " 

I  cannot  convey  a  sense  of  the  rugged  conviction  and 
judicial  emphasis  of  Dr.  Urquart's  sjjeech:  to  those 
who  did  not  hear  him,  it  may  appear  as  if  he  fed  me  on 
enigmas ;  to  myself,  who  heard,  I  seemed  to  have  re- 
ceived a  lesson  and  a  co..ipliment. 

"  I  thank  you,"  I  said.  "  I  feel  you  have  said  as  much 
as  possible,  and  more  than  I  had  any  right  to  ask.  I  take 
that  as  a  mark  of  confidence,  which  I  will  try  to  deserve. 
I  hope,  sir,  you  will  let  me  regard  you  as  a  friend." 

He  evaded  my  proffered  friendship  with  a  blunt  pro- 
posal to  rejoin  the  mess ;  and  yet  a  moment  later,  con- 
trived to  alleviate  the  snub.  For,  as  we  entered  the 
smoking-room,  he  laid  his  hand  on  my  shoulder  with  a 
kind  familiarity. 

"I  have  just  prescribed  for  Mr.  Dodd,"  says  he,  "a 
glass  of  our  Madeira." 


354  THE    WRECKER. 

I  have  never  again  met  Dr.  Urquart :  but  lie  wrote 
himself  so  clear  upon  my  memory  that  I  think  I  see  him 
still.  And  indeed  I  had  cause  to  remember  the  man  for 
the  sake  of  his  communication.  It  was  hard  enough  to 
make  a  theory  fit  the  circumstances  of  the  Flying  Scud; 
but  one  in  which  the  chief  actor  should  stand  the  least 
excused,  and  might  retain  the  esteem  or  at  least  the  pity 
of  a  man  like  Dr.  Urquart,  failed  me  utterly.  Here  at 
least  was  the  end  of  my  discoveries ;  I  learned  no  more, 
till  I  learned  all ;  and  my  reader  has  the  evidence  com- 
plete. Is  he  more  astute  than  I  was  ?  or,  like  me,  does 
he  give  it  up  ? 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

CROSS-QUESTIONS    AND   CROOKED   ANSWERS. 

I  have  said  hard  words  of  San  Francisco ;  they  must 
scarce  be  literally  understood  (one  cannot  suppose  the 
Israelites  did  justice  to  the  land  of  Pharaoh)  ;  and  the 
city  took  a  fine  revenge  of  me  on  my  return.  She  had 
never  worn  a  more  becoming  guise ;  the  sun  shone,  the 
air  was  lively,  the  people  had  flowers  in  their  button- 
holes and  smiles  upon  their  faces ;  and  as  I  made  my 
way  toward  Jim's  place  of  employment,  with  some  very 
black  anxieties  at  heart,  I  seemed  to  myself  a  blot  on 
the  surrounding  gaiety. 


CROSS-QUESTIONS   AND   CROOKED   ANSWERS.      355 

My  destination  was  in  a  by-street,  in  a  mean,  rickety 
building;  "The  Franklin  H.  Dodge  Steam  Printing  Com- 
pany" appeared  upon  its  front,  and  in  characters  of 
greater  freshness,  so  as  to  suggest  recent  conversion, 
the  watch-cry,  "  White  Labor  Only."  In  the  office,  in  a 
dusty  pen,  Jim  sat  alone  before  a  table.  A  wretched 
change  had  overtaken  him  in  clothes,  body,  and  bearing ; 
he  looked  sick  and  shabby;  he  who  had  once  rejoiced  in 
his  day's  employment,  like  a  horse  among  pastures,  now 
sat  staring  on  a  column  of  accounts,  idly  chewing  a  pen, 
at  times  heavily  sighing,  the  picture  of  inefficiency  and 
inattention.  He  was  sunk  deep  in  a  painful  reverie  ;  he 
neither  saw  nor  heard  me ;  and  I  stood  and  watched  him 
unobserved.  I  had  a  sudden  vain  relenting.  Eepent- 
ance  bludgeoned  me.  As  I  had  predicted  to  Nares,  I 
stood  and  kicked  myself.  Here  was  I  come  home  again, 
my  honour  saved ;  there  was  my  friend  in  want  of  rest, 
nursing,  and  a  generous  diet ;  and  I  asked  myself  with 
Falstaff,  "  What  is  in  that  word  honour  ?  what  is  that 
honour  ?  "  and,  like  Falstaff,  I  told  myself  that  it  was  air. 

"Jim!"  said  I. 

"Loudon!"  he  gasped,  and  jumped  from  his  chair 
and  stood  shaking. 

The  next  moment  I  was  over  the  barrier,  and  we  were 
hand  in  hand. 

"  My  poor  old  man  ! "  I  cried. 

"  Thank  God  you're  home  at  last ! "  he  gulped,  and 
kept  patting  my  shoulder  with  his  hand. 


356  THE    WRECKER. 

"I've  no  good  news  for  you,  Jim  !  "  said  I. 

"You've  come  —  that's  the  good  news  that  I  want," 
he  replied.     "  0,  how  I've  longed  for  you,  Loudon  ! " 

"I  couldn't  do  what  you  wrote  me,"  I  said,  lowering 
my  voice.    "  The  creditors  have  it  all.     I  couldn't  do  it." 

"  Ssh !  "  returned  Jim.  "  I  was  crazy  when  I  wrote. 
I  could  never  have  looked  Mamie  in  the  face  if  we'd 
have  done  it.  0,  Loudon,  what  a  gift  that  woman  is ! 
You  think  you  know  something  of  life :  you  just  don't 
know  anything.  It's  the  goodness  of  the  woman,  it's 
a  revelation ! " 

"That's  all  right,"  said  L  "That's  how  I  hoped  to 
hear  you,  Jim." 

"And  so  the  Flying  Scud  was  a  fraud,"  he  resumed. 
"I  didn't  quite  understand  your  letter,  but  I  made  out 
that." 

"  Fraud  is  a  mild  term  for  it,"  said  I.  "  The  creditors 
will  never  believe  what  fools  we  were.  And  that  re- 
minds me,"  I  continued,  rejoicing  in  the  transition,  "how 
about  the  bankruptcy  ?  " 

"You  were  lucky  to  be  out  of  that,"  answered  Jim, 
shaking  his  head ;  "  you  were  lucky  not  to  see  the 
papers.  The  Occidental  called  me  a  fifth-rate  Kerbstonn 
broker  with  water  on  the  brain;  another  said  I  was  a 
tree-frog  that  had  got  into  the  same  meadow  with  Long- 
huvst,  and  had  blown  myself  out  till  I  went  pop.  It 
was  rough  on  a  man  in  his  honeymoon ;  so  was  what 
they  said  about  my  looks,  and  what  I  had  on,  and  the 


CUOSS-QUESTIONS   AND   CROOKED   ANSWERS.      357 

way  I  perspired.  But  I  braced  myself  up  with  the 
Flying  Scud.  How  did  it  exactly  figure  out  anyway? 
I  don't  seem  to  catch  on  to  that  story,  Loudon." 

"  The  devil  you  don't ! "  thinks  I  to  myself ;  and  then 
aloud :  "  You  see  we  had  neither  one  of  us  good  luck. 
I  didn't  do  much  more  than  cover  current  expenses ;  and 
you  got  floored  immediately.  How  did  we  come  to  go 
so  soon  ?  " 

"  Well,  we'll  have  to  have  a  talk  over  all  this,"  said 
Jim  with  a  sudden  start.  "I  should  be  getting  to  my 
books ;  and  I  guess  you  had  better  go  up  right  away  to 
Mamie.  She's  at  Speedy's.  She  expects  you  with 
impatience.  She  regards  you  in  the  light  of  a  favourite 
brother,  Loudon." 

Any  scheme  was  welcome  which  allowed  me  to  post- 
pone the  hour  of  explanation,  and  avoid  (were  it  only 
for  a  breathing  space)  the  topic  of  the  Flying  Scud.  I 
hastened  accordingly  to  Bush  Street.  Mrs.  Speedy, 
already  rejoicing  in  the  return  of  a  spouse,  hailed  me 
with  acclamation.  "And  it's  beautiful  you're  looking, 
Mr.  Dodd,  my  dear,"  she  was  kind  enough  to  say.  "And 
a  miracle  they  naygur  waheenies  let  ye  lave  the  oilands. 
I  have  my  suspicions  of  Shpeedy,"  she  added,  roguishly. 
"  Did  ye  see  him  after  the  naygresses  now  ?  " 

I  gave  Speedy  an  unblemished  character. 

"The  one  of  ye  will  niver  bethray  the  other,"  said 
the  playful  dame,  and  ushered  me  into  a  bare  room, 
where  Mamie  sat  working  a  type-writer. 


358  THE   WRECKER. 

I  was  touched  by  the  cordiality  of  her  greeting.  With 
the  prettiest  gesture  in  the  world  she  gave  me  both 
her  hands;  wheeled  forth  a  chair;  and  produced,  from 
a  cupboard,  a  tin  of  my  favourite  tobacco  and  a  book  of 
my  exclusive  cigarette  papers. 

"There!"  she  cried,  "you  see,  Mr.  Loudon,  we  were 
all  prepared  for  you;  the  things  were  bought  the 
very  day  you  sailed." 

I  imagine  she  had  always  intended  me  a  pleasant 
welcome ;  but  the  certain  fervour  of  sincerity,  which  I 
could  not  help  remarking,  flowed  from  an  unexpected 
source.  Captain  Nares,  with  a  kindness  for  which  I 
can  never  be  sufficiently  grateful,  had  stolen  a  moment 
from  his  occupations,  driven  to  call  on  Mamie,  and 
drawn  her  a  generous  picture  of  my  prowess  at  the 
wreck.  She  was  careful  not  to  breathe  a  word  of  this 
interview,  till  she  had  led  me  on  to  tell  my  adventures 
for  myself. 

"  Ah !  Captain  ISTares  was  better,"  she  cried,  when 
I  had  done.  "  From  your  account,  I  have  only  learned 
one  new  thing,  that  you  are  modest  as  well  as  brave." 

I  cannot  tell  with  what  sort  of  disclamation  I  sought 
to  reply. 

"  It  is  of  no  use,"  said  Mamie.  "  I  know  a  hero. 
And  when  I  heard  of  you  working  all  day  like  a  com- 
mon labourer,  with  your  hands  bleeding  and  your  nails 
broken  —  and  how  you  told  the  captain  to  *  crack  on ' 
(I  think  he  said)   in  the  storm,  when  he  was  terrified 


CROSS-QUESTIONS   AND   CROOKED   ANSWERS.      359 

himself  —  and  the  danger  of  that  horrid  mutiny"  — 
(Xares  had  been  obligingly  dipping  his  brush  in  earth- 
quake and  eclipse)  —  "  and  how  it  was  all  done,  in  part 
at  least,  for  Jim  and  me  —  I  felt  we  could  never  say 
how  we  admired  and  thanked  you." 

"  Mamie,"  I  cried,  ''  don't  talk  of  thanks ;  it  is  not 
a  word  to  be  used  between  friends.  Jim  and  I  have 
been  prosperous  together;  now  we  shall  be  poor  to- 
gether. We've  done  our  best,  and  that's  all  that  need 
be  said.  The  next  thing  is  for  me  to  find  a  situation, 
and  send  you  and  Jim  up  country  for  a  long  holiday 
in  the  redwoods  —  for  a  holiday  Jim  has  got  to  have." 

"Jim  can't  take  your  money,  Mr.  Loudon,"  said 
Mamie. 

"  Jim  ?  "  cried  I.     "  He's  got  to.     Didn't  I  take  his  ?  " 

Presently  after,  Jim  himself  arrived,  and  before  he 
had  yet  done  mopping  his  brow,  he  was  at  me  with  the 
accursed  subject.  "Xow,  Loudon,"  said  he,  "here  we 
are  all  together,  the  day's  work  done  and  the  evening 
before  us  ;  just  start  in  with  the  whole  story." 

"One  word  on  business  first,"  said  I,  speaking  from 
the  lips  outward,  and  meanwhile  (in  the  private  apart- 
ments of  my  brain)  trying  for  the  thousandth  time  to 
find  some  plausible  arrangement  of  my  story.  "  I  want 
to  have  a  notion  how  we  stand  about  the  bankruptcy." 

"  0,  that's  ancient  history,"  cried  Jim.  "  We  paid 
seven  cents,  and  a  wonder  we  did  as  well.  Tlie  re- 
ceiver — "  (methought  a  spasm  seized  him  at  the  name 


360  THE   WRECKER. 

of  this  official,  and  he  broke  oif).  "But  it's  all  past 
and  done  with  anyway;  and  what  I  want  to  get  at  is 
the  facts  about  the  wreck.  I  don't  seem  to  understand  it ; 
appears  to  me  like  as  there  was  something  underneath." 

"  There  was  nothing  in  it  anyway,"  I  said,  with  a 
forced  laugh. 

"  That's  what  I  want  to  judge  of,"  returned  Jim. 

"How  the  mischief  is  it  I  can  never  keep  you  to 
that  bankruptcy  ?  It  looks  as  if  you  avoided  it,"  said 
I  —  for  a  man  in  my  situation,  Avith  unpardonable  folly. 

"  Don't  it  look  a  little  as  if  you  were  trying  to  avoid 
the  wreck  ?  "  asked  Jim. 

It  was  my  own  doing ;  there  was  no  retreat.  "  My 
dear  fellow,  if  you  make  a  point  of  it,  here  goes ! " 
said  I,  and  launched  with  spurious  gaiety  into  the  cur- 
rent of  my  tale.  I  told  it  with  point  and  spirit ; 
described  the  island  and  the  wreck,  mimicked  Ander- 
son and  the  Chinese,  maintained  the  suspense.  .  .  .  My 
pen  has  stumbled  on  the  fatal  word.  I  maintained  the 
suspense  so  well  that  it  was  never  relieved ;  and  when 
I  stopped  —  I  dare  not  say  concluded,  where  there  was 
no  conclusion  —  I  found  Jim  and  Mamie  regarding  me 
with  surprise. 

"  Well  ?  "  said  Jim. 

"  Well,  that's  all,"  said  I. 

"  But  how  do  you  explain  it  ?  "  he  asked. 

"  I  can't  explain  it,"  said  I. 

Mamie  wagged  her  head  ominously. 


CROSS-QUESTIONS    AND   CROOKED    ANSWERS.      361 

"  But,  great  Caesar's  ghost !  the  money  was  offered  ! " 
cried  Jim.  "  It  won't  do,  Loudon ;  it's  nonsense,  on 
the  face  of  it !  I  don't  say  but  what  you  and  Nares 
did  your  best ;  I'm  sure,  of  course,  you  did ;  but  I  do 
say,  you  got  fooled.  I  say  the  stuff  is  in  that  ship 
to-day,  and  I  say  I  mean  to  get  it." 

"There  is  nothing  in  the  ship,  I  tell  you,  but  old 
wood  and  iron  ! "  said  I. 

"You'll  see,"  said  Jim.  "Next  time  I  go  myself. 
I'll  take  Mamie  for  the  trip ;  Longhurst  won't  refuse 
me  the  expense  of  a  schooner.  You  wait  till  I  get  the 
searching  of  her." 

"  But  you  can't  search  her ! "  cried  I.     "  She's  burned." 

"Burned!"  cried  Mamie,  starting  a  little  from  the 
attitude  of  quiescent  capacity  in  which  she  had  hitherto 
sat  to  hear  me,  her  hands  fokbd  in  her  lap. 

There  was  an  appreciable  pause. 

"I  beg  your  pardon,  Loudon,"  began  Jim  at  last, 
"but  why  in  snakes  did  you  burn  her  ?  " 

"  It  was  an  idea  of  Nares's,"  said  I. 

"This  is  certainly  the  strangest  circumstance  of  all," 
observed  Mamie. 

"I  must  say,  Loudon,  it  does  seem  kind  of  unex- 
pected," added  Jim.  "It  seems  kind  of  crazy  even. 
What  did  you  —  what  did  Nares  expect  to  gain  by 
burning  her  ?  " 

"  I  don't  know ;  it  didn't  seem  to  matter ;  we  had  got 
all  there  was  to  get,"  said  I. 


362  THE   WRECKER. 

"That's  the  very  point,"  cried  Jim.  "It  was  quite 
plain  you  hadn't." 

"  What  made  you  so  sure  ?  "  asked  Mamie. 

"How  can  I  tell  you?"  I  cried.  "We  had  been  all 
through  her.     We  were  sure ;  that's  all  that  I  can  say." 

"I  begin  to  think  you  were,"  she  returned,  with  a 
significant  emphasis. 

Jim  hurriedly  intervened.  "  What  I  don't  quite  make 
out,  Loudon,  is  that  you  don't  seem  to  appreciate  the 
peculiarities  of  the  thing,"  said  he.  "It  doesn't  seem 
to  have  struck  you  same  as  it  does  me." 

"  Pshaw !  why  go  on  with  this  ?  "  cried  Mamie,  sud- 
denly rising.  "  Mr.  Dodd  is  not  telling  us  either  what 
he  thinks  or  what  he  knows." 

"  Mamie ! "  cried  Jim. 

"  You  need  not  be  concerned  for  his  feelings,  James ; 
he  is  not  concerned  for  yours,"  returned  the  lady.  "  He 
dare  not  deny  it,  besides.  And  this  is  not  the  first 
time  he  has  practised  reticence.  Have  you  forgotten 
that  he  knew  the  address,  and  did  not  tell  it  you  until 
that  man  had  escaped  ?  " 

Jim  turned  to  me  pleadingly ;  we  were  all  on  our  feet. 
"Loudon,"  he  said,  "you  see  Mamie  has  some  fancy; 
and  I  must  say  there's  just  a  sort  of  a  shadow  of  an 
excuse ;  for  it  is  bewildering  —  even  to  me,  Loudon, 
with  my  trained  business  intelligence.  For  God's  sake, 
clear  it  up." 

"This  serves  me  right,"  said  I.     "I  should  not  have 


CEOSS-QUESTIONS   AND   CROOKED   ANSWERS.      363 

tried  to  keep  you  in  the  dark ;  I  should  have  told  you 
at  first  that  I  was  pledged  to  secrecy;  I  should  have 
asked  you  to  trust  me  in  the  beginning.  It  is  all  I  can 
do  noAV.  There  is  more  of  the  story,  but  it  concerns 
none  of  us,  and  my  tongue  is  tied.  I  have  given  my 
word  of  honour.  You  must  trust  me  and  try  to  forgive 
me." 

"I  daresay  I  am  very  stupid,  Mr.  Dodd,"  begun 
Mamie,  with  an  alarming  sweetness,  "but  I  thought 
you  went  upon  this  trip  as  my  husband's  representa- 
tive and  with  my  husband's  money  ?  You  tell  us  now 
that  you  are  pledged,  but  I  should  have  thought  you 
were  pledged  first  of  all  to  James.  You  say  it  does  not 
concern  us ;  we  are  poor  people,  and  my  husband  is 
sick,  and  it  concerns  us  a  great  deal  to  understand  how 
we  come  to  have  lost  our  money,  and  why  our  repre- 
sentative comes  back  to  us  with  nothing.  You  ask  that 
we  should  trust  you;  you  do  not  seem  to  understand; 
the  question  we  are  asking  ourselves  is  whether  we  have 
not  trusted  you  too  much." 

"I  do  not  ask  you  to  trust  me,"  I  replied.  "I  ask 
Jim.     He  knows  me." 

"  You  think  you  can  do  what  you  please  with  James ; 
you  trust  to  his  affection,  do  you  not  ?  And  mo,  I  sup- 
pose, you  do  not  consider,"  said  Mamie.  "But  it  Avas 
perhaps  an  unfortunate  day  for  you  when  we  were  mar- 
ried, for  I  at  least  am  not  blind.  The  crew  run  away, 
the  ship  is  sold  for  a  great  deal  of  money,  you  know  that 


364  THE   WRECKER. 

man's  address  and  you  conceal  it,  you  do  not  find  what 
you  were  sent  to  look  for,  and  yet  you  burn  the  ship ; 
and  now,  when  we  ask  explanations,  you  are  pledged  to 
secrecy !  But  I  am  pledged  to  no  such  thing ;  I  will 
not  stand  by  in  silence  and  see  my  sick  and  ruined 
husband  betrayed  by  his  condescending  friend.  I  will 
give  you  the  truth  for  once.  Mr.  Dodd,  you  have  been 
bought  and  sold." 

"Mamie,"  cried  Jim,  "no  more  of  this!  It's  me 
you're  striking;  it's  only  me  you  hurt.  You  don't 
know,  you  cannot  understand  these  things.  Why, 
to-day,  if  it  hadn't  been  for  Loudon,  I  couldn't  have 
looked  you  in  the  face.     He  saved  my  honesty." 

"I  have  heard  plenty  of  this  talk  before,"  she  replied. 
"You  are  a  sweet-hearted  fool,  and  I  love  you  for  it. 
But  I  am  a  clear-headed  woman ;  my  eyes  are  open,  and 
I  understand  this  man's  hypocrisy.  Did  he  not  come 
here  to-day  and  pretend  he  would  take  a  situation  — 
pretend  he  would  share  his  hard-earned  wages  with  us 
until  you  were  well  ?  Pretend !  It  makes  me  furious ! 
His  wages !  a  share  of  his  wages !  That  would  have 
been  your  pittance,  that  would  have  been  your  share 
of  the  Flying  Scud  —  you  who  worked  and  toiled  for  hiui 
when  he  was  a  beggar  in  the  streets  of  Paris.  But  we 
do  not  want  your  charity ;  thank  God,  I  can  work  for 
my  own  husband !  See  what  it  is  to  have  obliged  a 
gentleman.  He  would  let  you  pick  him  up  when  he 
was  begging ;  he  would  stand  and  look  on,  and  let  you 


CROSS-QUESTIONS   AND   CHOOKED   ANSWERS.      365 

black  his  shoes,  and  sneer  at  you.  For  you  were  always 
sneering  at  my  James;  you  always  looked  down  upon 
him  in  your  heart,  you  know  it !  "  She  turned  back  to 
Jim.  "  And  now  when  he  is  rich,"  she  began,  and  then 
swooped  again  on  me.  "  For  you  are  rich,  I  dare  you  to 
deny  it ;  I  defy  you  to  look  me  in  the  face  and  try  to 
deny  that  you  are  rich  —  rich  with  our  money  —  my 
husband's  money  —  " 

Heaven  knows  to  what  a  height  she  might  have  risen, 
being,  by  this  time,  bodily  whirled  away  in  her  own 
hurricane  of  words.  Heart-sickness,  a  black  depression, 
a  treacherous  sympathy  with  my  assailant,  pity  unutter- 
able for  poor  Jim,  already  filled,  divided,  and  abashed 
my  spirit.  Flight  seemed  the  only  remedy ;  and  making 
a  private  sign  to  Jim,  as  if  to  ask  permission,  I  slunk 
from  the  unequal  field. 

I  was  but  a  little  way  down  the  street,  when  I  was 
arrested  by  the  sound  of  some  one  running,  and  Jim's 
voice  calling  me  by  name.  He  had  followed  me  with  a 
letter  which  had  been  long  awaiting  my  return. 

I  took  it  in  a  dream.  "This  has  been  a  devil  of 
a  business,"  said  I. 

"Don't  think  hard  of  Mamie,"  he  pleaded.  "It's 
the  way  she's  made ;  it's  her  high-toned  loyalty.  And 
of  course  I  know  it's  all  right.  I  know  your  sterling 
character ;  but  you  didn't,  somehow,  make  out  to  give 
us  the  thing  straight,  Loudon.  Anybody  might  have  — 
I  mean  it  —  I  mean  —  " 


366  THE  WRECKER. 

"Never  mind  what  you  mean,  my  poor  Jim,"  said  I. 
"She's  a  gallant  little  woman  and  a  loyal  wife:  and 
I  thought  her  splendid.  My  story  was  as  fishy  as  the 
devil.     I'll  never  think  the  less  of  either  her  or  you." 

"  It'll  blow  over,  it  must  blow  over,"  said  he. 

"  It  never  can,"  I  returned,  sighing :  "  and  don't  you 
try  to  make  it!  Don't  name  me,  unless  it's  with  an 
oath.  And  get  home  to  her  right  away.  Good  by,  my 
best  of  friends.  Good  by,  and  God  bless  you.  We 
shall  never  meet  again." 

"  0  Loudon,  that  we  should  live  to  say  such  words ! " 
he  cried. 

I  had  no  views  on  life,  beyond  an  occasional  impulse 
to  commit  suicide,  or  to  get  drunk,  and  drifted  down 
the  street,  semi-conscious,  walking  apparently  on  air, 
in  the  light-headedness  of  grief.  I  had  money  in  my 
pocket,  whether  mine  or  my  creditors'  I  had  no  means 
of  guessing;  and,  the  Poodle  Dog  lying  in  my  path, 
I  went  mechanically  in  and  took  a  table.  A  waiter 
attended  me,  and  I  suppose  I  gave  ray  orders ;  for 
presently  I  found  myself,  with  a  sudden  return  of  con- 
sciousness, beginning  dinner.  On  the  white  cloth  at  my 
elbow  lay  the  letter,  addressed  in  a  clerk's  hand,  and 
bearing  an  English  stamp  and  the  Edinburgh  postmark. 
A  bowl  of  bouillon  and  a  glass  of  wine  awakened  in  one 
corner  of  my  brain  (where  all  the  rest  was  in  mourning, 
the  blinds  down  as  for  a  funeral)  a  faint  stir  of  curi- 
osity ;    and  while  I  waited  the  next  course,  wondering 


CROSS-QUESTIONS   AND   CROOKED   ANSWERS.      367 

the  while  what  I  had  ordered,  I  opened  and  began  to 
read  the  epoch-making  document. 

"  Deak  Sir  :  I  am  charged  with  the  melancholy  duty 
of  announcing  to  you  the  death  of  your  excellent  grand- 
father, Mr.  Alexander  Loudon,  on  the  17th  ult.  On 
Sunday  the  13th,  he  went  to  church  as  usual  in  the 
forenoon,  and  stopped  on  his  way  home,  at  the  corner 
of  Princes  Street,  in  one  of  our  seasonable  east  winds, 
to  talk  with  an  old  friend.  The  same  evening  acute 
bronchitis  declared  itself;  from  the  first.  Dr.  M'Combie 
anticipated  a  fatal  result,  and  the  old  gentleman  ap- 
peared to  have  no  illusion  as  to  his  own  state.  He 
repeatedly  assured  me  it  was  '  by  '  with  him  now ;  '  and 
high  time,  too,'  he  once  added  with  characteristic 
asperity.  He  was  not  in  the  least  changed  on  the 
approach  of  death :  only  (what  I  am  sure  must  be 
very  grateful  to  your  feelings)  he  seemed  to  think 
and  speak  even  more  kindly  than  usual  of  yourself: 
referring  to  you  as  '  Jeannie's  yin,'  with  strong  expres- 
sions of  regard.  '  He  was  the  only  one  I  ever  liket 
of  the  hale  jing-bang,'  was  one  of  his  expressions ; 
and  you  will  be  glad  to  know  that  he  dwelt  par- 
ticularly on  the  dutiful  respect  you  had  always  dis- 
played in  your  relations.  The' small  codicil,  by  which 
he  bequeaths  you  his  Molesworth  and  other  profes- 
sional works,  was  added  (you  will  observe)  on  the  day 
before  his  death ;  so  that  you  were  in  his  thoughts 
until   the   end.      I   should   say   that,   though   rather   a 


368  THE   WRECKER. 

trying  patient,  he  was  most  tenderly  nursed  by  your 
uncle,  and  your  cousin.  Miss  Euphemia.  I  enclose  a 
copy  of  the  testament,  by  which  you  will  see  that  you 
share  equally  with  Mr.  Adam,  and  that  I  hold  at  your 
disposal  a  sum  nearly  approaching  seventeen  thousand 
pounds.  I  beg  to  congratulate  you  on  this  considerable 
acquisition,  and  expect  your  orders,  to  which  I  shall 
hasten  to  give  my  best  attention.  Thinking  that  you 
might  desire  to  return  at  once  to  this  country,  and  not 
knowing  how  you  may  be  placed,  I  enclose  a  credit  for 
six  hundred  pounds.  Please  sign  the  accompanying 
slip,  and  let  me  have  it  at  your  earliest  convenience. 
"  I  am,  dear  sir,  yours  truly, 

"W.    EUTHEBFORD   GbEGG." 

"  God  bless  the  old  gentleman ! "  I  thought ;  "  and 
for  that  matter  God  bless  Uncle  Adam !  and  my  cousin 
Euphemia !  and  Mr.  Gregg ! "  I  had  a  vision  of  that 
grey  old  life  now  brought  to  an  end  —  "  and  high 
time  too "  —  a  vision  of  those  Sabbath  streets  alter- 
nately vacant  and  filled  with  silent  people ;  of  the 
babel  of  the  bells,  the  long-drawn  psalmody,  the  shrewd 
sting  of  the  east  wind,  the  hollow,  echoing,  dreary 
house  to  which  ''Ecky"  had  returned  with  the  hand 
of  death  already  on  his  shoulder;  a  vision,  too,  of  the 
long,  rough  country  lad,  perhaps  a  serious  courtier  of 
the  lasses  in  the  hawthorn  den,  perhaps  a  rustic  dancer 
on  the   green,  who  had  first  earned  and  answered  to 


CROSS-QUESTIONS   AND   CROOKED    ANSWERS.      369 

that  harsli  diminutive.  And  I  asked  myself  if,  on 
the  whole,  poor  Ecky  had  succeeded  in  life;  if  the 
last  state  of  that  man  were  not  on  the  whole  worse 
than  the  first;  and  the  house  in  Kandolph  Crescent 
a  less  admirable  dwelling  than  the  hamlet  where  he 
saw  the  day  and  grew  to  manhood.  Here  was  a  con- 
solatory thought  for  one  who  was  himself  a  failure. 

Yes,  I  declare  the  word  came  in  my  mind ;  and  all 
the  while,  in  another  partition  of  the  brain,  I  was 
glowing  and  singing  for  my  new-found  opulence.  The 
pile  of  gold  —  four  thousand  two  hundred  and  fifty 
double  eagles,  seventeen  thousand  ugly  sovereigns, 
twenty-one  thousand  two  hundred  and  fifty  Xapole- 
ons  —  danced,  and  rang  and  ran  molten,  and  lit  up  life 
with  their  effulgence,  in  tlie  eye  of  fancy.  Here  were 
all  things  made  plain  to  me :  Paradise  —  Paris,  I  mean 
—  Regained,  Carthew  protected,  Jim  restored,  the  cred- 
itors .  .  . 

''  The  creditors  ! "  I  repeated,  and  sank  back  benumbed. 
It  was  all  theirs  to  the  last  farthing :  my  grandfather 
had  died  too  soon  to  save  me. 

I  must  have  somewhere  a  rare  vein  of  decision.  In 
that  revolutionary  moment,  I  found  myself  prepared 
for  all  extremes  except  the  one  :  ready  to  do  anything, 
or  to  go  anywhere,  so  long  as  I  might  save  my  money. 
At  the  worst,  there  was  flight,  flight  to  some  of  those 
blest  countries  where  the  serpent,  extradition,  has  not 
yet  entered  in. 


370  THE   WRECKER. 

On  no  condition  is  extradition 
Allowed  in  Callao ! 

—  the  old  lawless  words  haunted  me ;  and  I  saw  my- 
self hugging  my  gold  in  the  company  of  such  men  as 
had  once  made  and  svmg  them,  in  the  rude  and  bloody 
wharfside  drinking-shops  of  Chili  and  Peru.  The  run 
of  my  ill-luck,  the  breach  of  my  old  friendship,  this 
bubble  fortune  flaunted  for  a  moment  in  my  eyes  and 
snatched  again,  had  made  me  desperate  and  (in  the 
expressive  vulgarism)  ugly.  To  drink  vile  spirits  among 
vile  companions  by  the  flare  of  a  pine-torch ;  to  go 
burthened  with  my  furtive  treasure  in  a  belt ;  to  fight 
for  it  knife  in  hand,  rolling  on  a  clay  floor;  to  flee 
perpetually  in  fresh  ships  and  to  be  chased  through 
the  sea  from  isle  to  isle,  seemed,  in  my  then  frame  of 
mind,  a  welcome  series  of  events. 

That  was  for  the  worst ;  but  it  began  to  dawn  slowly 
on  my  mind  that  there  was  yet  a  possible  better.  Once 
escaped,  once  safe  in  Callao,  I  might  approach  my  cred- 
itors with  a  good  grace ;  and  properly  handled  by  a 
cunning  agent,  it  was  just  possible  they  might  accept 
some  easy  composition.  The  hope  recalled  me  to  the 
bankruptcy.  It  was  strange,  I  reflected :  often  as  I  had 
questioned  Jim,  he  had  never  obliged  me  with  an  answer. 
In  his  haste  for  news  about  the  wreck,  my  own  no  less 
legitimate  curiosity  had  gone  disappointed.  Hateful  as 
the  thought  was  to  me,  I  must  return  at  once  and  find 
out  where  I  stood. 


CROSS-QUESTIONS   AND   CROOKED   ANSWERS.       371 

I  left  my  dinner  still  unfinished,  paying  for  the  whole 
of  course,  and  tossing  the  waiter  a  gold  piece.  I  was 
reckless ;  I  knew  not  what  was  mine  and  cared  not : 
I  must  take  what  I  could  get  and  give  as  I  was  able ; 
to  rob  and  to  squander  seemed  the  complimentary  parts 
of  my  new  destiny.  I  walked  up  Bush  Street,  whistling, 
brazening  myself  to  confront  Mamie  in  the  first  j)lace, 
and  the  world  at  large  and  a  certain  visionary  judge 
upon  a  bench  in  the  second.  Just  outside,  I  stopped 
and  lighted  a  cigar  to  give  me  greater  countenance ; 
and  puffing  this  and  wearing  what  (I  am  sure)  was  a 
wretched  assumption  of  braggadocio,  I  reappeared  on 
the  scene  of  my  disgrace. 

My  friend  and  his  wife  were  finishing  a  poor  meal  — 
rags  of  old  mutton,  the  remainder  cakes  from  breakfast 
eaten  cold,  and  a  starveling  pot  of  coffee. 

"I  beg  your  pardon,  Mrs.  Pinkerton,"  said  I.  "Sorry 
to  inflict  my  presence  where  it  cannot  be  desired;  but 
there  is  a  piece  of  business  necessary  to  be  discussed." 

"Pray  do  not  consider  me,"  said  Mamie,  rising,  and 
she  sailed  into  the  adjoining  bedroom. 

Jim  watched  her  go  and  shook  his  head;  he  looked 
miserably  old  and  ill. 

"  What  is  it,  now  ?  "  he  asked. 

"Perhaps  you  remember  you  answered  none  of  my 
questions,"  said  I. 

"  Your  questions  ?  "  faltered  Jim. 

"Even  so,  Jim.     My  questions,"  I  repeated.     "I  put 


372  THE   WKECKER. 

questions  as  well  as  yourself ;  and  however  little  I  may 
have  satisfied  Mamie  with  my  answers,  I  beg  to  remind 
you  that  you  gave  me  none  at  all." 

"  You  mean  about  the  bankruptcy  ?  "  asked  Jim. 

I  nodded. 

He  writhed  in  his  chair.  ''The  straight  truth  is,  I 
was  ashamed,"  he  said.  "I  was  trying  to  dodge  you. 
I've  been  playing  fast  and  loose  with  you,  Loudon ; 
I've  deceived  you  from  the  first,  I  blush  to  own  it. 
And  here  you  came  home  and  put  the  very  question  I 
was  fearing.  Why  did  we  bust  so  soon  ?  Your  keen 
business  eye  had  not  deceived  you.  That's  the  point, 
that's  my  shame ;  tnat's  what  killed  me  this  afternoon 
when  Mamie  was  treating  you  so,  and  my  conscience 
was  telling  me  all  the  time.  Thou  art  the  man," 

"  What  was  it,  Jim  ?  "   I  asked. 

"What  I  had  been  at  all  the  time,  Loudon,"  he 
wailed;  "and  I  don't  know  how  I'm  to  look  you  in 
the  face  and  say  it,  after  my  duplicity.  It  was  stocks," 
he  added  in  a  whisper, 

"  And  you  were  afraid  to  tell  me  that ! "  I  cried. 
"You  poor,  old,  cheerless  dreamer!  what  would  it 
matter  what  you  did  or  didn't  ?  Can't  you  see  we're 
doomed  ?  And  anyway,  that's  not  my  point.  It's  how 
I  stand  that  I  want  to  know.  There  is  a  particular 
reason.  Am  I  clear  ?  Have  I  a  certificate,  or  what 
have  I  to  do  to  get  one  ?  And  when  will  it  be  dated  ? 
You  can't  think  what  hangs  by  it ! " 


CROSS-QU^ESTIONS   AND   CROOKED   ANSWERS.      373 

"That's  the  worst  of  all,"  said  Jim,  like  a  man  in 
a  dream,  '■'  I  can't  see  how  to  tell  him  ! " 

"What  do  you  mean  ?  "  I  cried,  a  small  pang  of  terror 
at  my  heart. 

"  I'm  afraid  I  sacrificed  you,  Loudon,"  he  said,  looking 
at  me  pitifully. 

"  Sacrificed  me  ?"  I  repeated.  "  How  ?  What  do  you 
mean  by  sacrifice  ?  " 

"I  know  it'll  shock  your  delicate  self-respect,"  he 
said;  "but  what  was  I  to  do?  Things  looked  so  bad. 
The  receiver  —  "  (as  usual,  the  name  stuck  in  his  throat, 
and  he  began  afresh),  "There  was  a  lot  of  talk;  the 
reporters  were  after  me  already ;  there  was  the  trouble 
and  all  about  the  Mexican  business;  and  I  got  scared 
right  out,  and  I  guess  I  lost  my  head.  You  weren't 
there,  you  see,  and  that  was  my  temptation." 

I  did  not  know  how  long  he  might  thus  beat  about  the 
bush  with  dreadful  hintings,  and  I  was  already  beside 
myself  with  terror.  What  had  he  done  ?  I  saw  he 
had  been  tempted ;  I  knew  from  his  letters  that  he  was 
in  no  condition  to  resist.  How  had  he  sacrificed  the 
absent  ? 

"Jim,"  I  said,  "you  must  speak  right  out.  I've  got 
all  that  I  can  carry." 

"Well,"  he  said  —  "I  know  it  was  a  liberty — I  made 
it  out  you  were  no  business  man,  only  a  stone-broke 
painter;  that  half  the  time  you  didn't  know  anything 
anyway,  particularly  money  and  accounts.    I  said  you 


874  THE   WRECKER. 

never  could  be  got  to  understand  whose  was  whose.  I 
had  to  say  that  because  of  some  entries  in  the  books  —  " 

"  For  God's  sake,"  I  cried,  "  put  me  out  of  this  agony ! 
What  did  you  accuse  me  of  ?  " 

'^Accused  you  of?"  repeated  Jim.  "Of  what  I'm 
telling  you.  And  there  being  no  deed  of  partnership,  I 
made  out  you  were  only  a  kind  of  clerk  that  I  called  a 
partner  just  to  give  you  taffy;  and  so  I  got  you  ranked 
a  creditor  on  the  estate  for  your  wages  and  the  money 
you  had  lent.     And  —  " 

I  believe  I  reeled.  "  A  creditor !  "  I  roared ;  "  a  cred- 
itor !     I'm  not  in  the  bankruptcy  at  all  ?  " 

"No,"  said  Jim.     "I  know  it  was  a  liberty  —  " 

"  0  damn  your  liberty !  read  that,"  I  cried,  dashing 
the  letter  before  him  on  the  table,  "and  call  in  your 
wife,  and  be  done  with  eating  this  truck"  —  as  I  spoke, 
I  slung  the  cold  mutton  in  the  empty  grate  —  "  and  let's 
all  go  and  have  a  champagne  supper.  I've  dined  —  I'm 
sure  I  don't  remember  what  I  had ;  I'd  dine  again  ten 
scores  of  times  upon  a  night  like  this.  Read  it,  you 
blaying  ass !  I'm  not  insane.  Here,  Mamie,"  I  contin- 
ued, opening  the  bedroom  door,  "  come  out  and  make  it 
up  with  me,  and  go  and  kiss  your  husband ;  and  I'll  tell 
you  what,  after  the  supper,  let's  go  to  some  place  where 
there's  a  band,  and  I'll  waltz  with  you  till  sunrise." 

"  What  does  it  all  mean  ?  "  cried  Jim. 

"  It  means  we  have  a  champagne  supper  to-night,  and 
all  go  to  Napa  Valley  or  to  Monterey  to-morrow,"  said 


TRAVELS    WITH    A   SHYSTER.  375 

I.  "Mamie,  go  and  get  your  things  on;  and  you,  Jim, 
sit  down  right  where  you  are,  take  a  sheet  of  paper,  and 
tell  Franklin  Dodge  to  go  to  Texas.  Mamie,  you  were 
right,  my  dear;  I  was  rich  all  the  time,  and  didn't 
know  it." 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

TRAVELS    WITH   A   SHYSTER. 


The  absorbing  and  disastrous  adventure  of  the  Flying 
Scud  was  noAV  qrite  ended;  we  had  dashed  into  these 
deep  waters  and  we  had  escaped  again  to  starve,  we  had 
been  ruined  and  were  saved,  had  quarrelled  and  made 
up;  there  remained  nothing  but  to  sing  Te  Deum,  draw 
a  line,  and  begin  on  a  fresh  page  of  my  unwritten  diary. 
I  do  not  pretend  that  I  recovered  all  I  had  lost  Avith 
Mamie ;  it  would  have  been  more  than  I  had  merited ; 
and  I  had  certainly  been  more  uncommunicative  than 
became  either  the  partner  or  the  friend.  But  she  ac- 
cepted the  position  handsomely ;  and  during  the  week 
that  I  now  j)assed  with  them,  both  she  and  Jim  had  the 
grace  to  spare  me  questions.  It  Avas  to  Calistoga  that 
we  went ;  there  was  some  rumour  of  a  JSTapa  land-boom 
at  the  moment,  the  possibility  of  stir  attracted  Jim, 
and  he  informed  me  he  would  find  a  certain  joy  in 
looking  on,  much  as   Napoleon  on  St.  Helena  took  a 


376  THE  WRECKER. 

pleasure  to  read  military  works.  The  field  of  his  ambi- 
tion was  quite  closed ;  he  was  done  with  action ;  and 
looked  forward  to  a  ranch  in  a  mountain  dingle,  a  patch 
of  corn,  a  pair  of  kine,  a  leisurely  and  contemplative 
age  in  the  green  shade  of  forests.  "Just  let  me  get 
down  on  my  back  in  a  hayfield,"  said  he,  "and  you'll 
find  there's  no  more  snap  to  me  than  that  much  putty." 

And  for  two  days  the  perfervid  being  actually  rested. 
The  third,  he  was  observed  in  consultation  with  the 
local  editor,  and  owned  he  was  in  two  minds  about 
purchasing  the  press  and  paper.  "  It's  a  kind  of  a  hold 
for  an  idle  man,"  he  said,  pleadingly ;  "  and  if  the  sec- 
tion was  to  open  up  the  way  it  ought  to,  there  might 
be  dollars  in  the  thing."  On  the  fourth  day  he  was 
gone  till  dinner-time  alone ;  on  the  fifth  we  made  a  long 
picnic  drive  to  the  fresh  field  of  enterprise ;  and  the 
sixth  was  passed  entirely  in  the  preparation  of  pro- 
spectuses. The  pioneer  of  McBride  City  was  already 
upright  and  self-reliant  as  of  yore ;  the  fire  rekindled 
in  his  eye,  the  ring  restored  to  his  voice;  a  charger 
sniffing  battle  and  saying  ha-ha,  among  the  spears.  On 
the  seventh  morning  we  signed  a  deed  of  partnership, 
for  Jim  would  not  accept  a  dollar  of  my  money  other- 
Avise  ;  and  having  once  more  engaged  myself  —  or  that 
mortal  part  of  me,  my  purse  —  among  the  wheels  of  his 
machinery,  I  returned  alone  to  San  Francisco  and  took 
quarters  in  the  Palace  Hotel. 

The  same  night  I  had  Nares  to  dinner.     His  sunburnt 


TRAVELS    WITH    A    SHYSTER.  377 

face,  his  queer  and  personal  strain  of  talk,  recalled  days 
that  were  scarce  over  and  that  seemed  already  distant. 
Through  the  music  of  the  band  outside,  and  the  chink 
and  clatter  of  the  dining-room,  it  seemed  to  me  as  if  I 
heard  the  foaming  of  the  surf  and  the  voices  of  the 
sea-birds  about  Midway  Island.  The  bruises  on  our 
hands  were  not  yet  healed ;  and  there  we  sat,  waited  on 
by  elaborate  darkies,  eating  pompino  and  drinking  iced 
champagne. 

"Think  of  our  dinners  on  the  Norah,  captain,  and 
then  oblige  me  by  looking  round  the  room  for  contrast." 

He  took  the  scene  in  slowly.  "Yes,  it  is  like  a 
dream,"  he  said:  "like  as  if  the  darkies  were  really 
about  as  big  as  dimes ;  and  a  great  big  scuttle  might 
open  up  there,  and  Johnson  stick  in  a  great  big  head 
and  shoulders,  and  cry,  'Eight  bells!'  —  and  the  whole 
thing  vanish." 

"Well,  it's  the  other  thing  that  has  done  that,"  I 
replied.  "It's  all  bygone  now,  all  dead  and  buried. 
Amen  !  say  I." 

"I  don't  know  that,  Mr.  Dodd;  and  to  tell  you  the 
fact,  I  don't  believe  it,"  said  ISTares.  "There's  more 
Flying  Scud  in  the  oven ;  and  the  baker's  name,  I  take 
it,  is  Bellairs.  He  tackled  me  the  day  we  came  in  :  sort 
of  a  razee  of  poor  old  humanity — jury  clothes  —  full 
new  suit  of  pimples :  knew  him  at  once  from  your 
description.  I  let  him  pump  me  till  I  saw  his  game. 
He  knows  a  good  deal  that  we  don't  know,  a  good  deal 


378  THE   WKECKER. 

tliat  we  do,  and  suspects  the  balance.  There's  trouble 
brewing  for  somebody." 

I  was  surprised  I  had  not  thought  of  this  before. 
Bellairs  had  been  behind  the  scenes ;  he  had  known 
Dickson ;  he  knew  the  flight  of  the  crew ;  it  was  hardly- 
possible  but  what  he  should  suspect ;  it  was  certain  if 
he  suspected,  that  he  would  seek  to  trade  on  the  sus- 
picion. And  sure  enough,  I  was  not  yet  dressed  the 
next  morning  ere  the  lawyer  was  knocking  at  my  door. 
I  let  him  in,  for  I  was  curious ;  and  he,  after  some 
ambiguous  prolegomena,  roundly  proposed  I  should  go 
shares  with  him. 

"  Shares  in  what  ?  "  I  inquired. 

"  If  you  will  allow  me  to  clothe  my  idea  in  a  some- 
what vulgar  form,"  said  he,  "  I  might  ask  you,  did  you 
go  to  Midway  for  your  health  ?  " 

'<  I  don't  know  that  I  did,"  I  replied. 

"  Similarly,  Mr.  Dodd,  you  may  be  sure  I  would  never 
have  taken  the  present  step  without  influential  grounds," 
pursued  the  lawyer.  "  Intrusion  is  foreign  to  my  char- 
acter. But  you  and  I,  sir,  are  engaged  on  the  same  ends. 
If  we  can  continue  to  work  the  thing  in  company,  I 
place  at  your  disposal  my  knowledge  of  the  law  and  a 
considerable  practice  in  delicate  negotiations  similar  to 
this.  Should  you  refuse  to  consent,  you  might  find  in 
me  a  formidable  and  "  —  he  hesitated  —  "  and  to  my  own 
regret,  perhaps  a  dangerous  competitor." 

"  Did  you  get  this  by  heart  ?  "  I  asked,  genially. 


TRAVELS   WITH   A   SHYSTER.  379 

"  I  advise  you  to ! "  he  said,  with  a  sudden  sparkle  of 
temper  and  menace,  instantly  gone,  instantly  succeeded 
by  fresh  cringing.  "  I  assure  you,  sir,  I  arrive  in  the 
character  of  a  friend ;  and  I  believe  you  underestimate 
my  information.  If  I  may  instance  an  example,  I  am 
acquainted  to  the  last  dime  with  what  you  made  (or 
rather  lost),  and  I  know  you  have  since  cashed  a  con- 
siderable draft  on  London." 

"  What  do  you  infer  ?  "  I  asked. 

"I  know  Avhere  that  draft  came  from,"  he  cried,  winc- 
ing back  like  one  who  has  greatly  dared,  and  instantly 
regrets  the  venture. 

"So?  "said  I. 

"  You  forget  I  was  Mr.  Dickson's  confidential  agent," 
he  explained.  "You  had  his  address,  Mr.  Dodd.  We 
were  the  only  two  that  he  communicated  with  in  San 
Francisco.  You  see  my  deductions  are  quite  obvious : 
you  see  how  open  and  frank  I  deal  with  you ;  as  I  should 
wish  to  do  with  any  gentleman  with  whom  I  was  con- 
joined in  business.  You  see  how  much  I  know ;  and  it 
can  scarcely  escape  your  strong  common-sense,  how  much 
better  it  would  be  if  I  knew  all.  You  cannot  hope  to  get 
rid  of  me  at  this  time  of  day,  I  have  my  place  in  the  affair, 
I  cannot  be  shaken  off ;  I  am,  if  you  will  excuse  a  rather 
technical  pleasantry,  an  encumbrance  on  the  estate.  The 
actual  harm  I  can  do,  I  leave  you  to  valuate  for  yourself. 
But  without  going  so  far,  Mr.  Dodd,  and  without  in  any 
way  inconveniencing  myself,  I  could  make  things  very 


880  THE   WRECKER. 

uncomfortable.  For  instance,  j\tr.  Pinkerton's  liquida- 
tion. You  and  I  know,  sir  —  and  you  better  than  I  — 
on  what  a  large  fund  you  draw.  Is  Mr.  Pinkerton  in  the 
thing  at  all  ?  It  was  you  only  who  knew  the  address, 
and  you  were  concealing  it.  Suppose  I  should  communi- 
cate with  Mr.  Pinkerton  —  " 

"  Look  here  !  "  I  interrupted,  "  communicate  with  him 
(if  you  will  permit  me  to  clothe  my  idea  in  a  vulgar 
shape)  till  you  are  blue  in  the  face.  There  is  only  one 
person  with  whom  I  refuse  to  allow  you  to  communicate 
farther,  and  that  is  myself.     Good  morning." 

He  could  not  conceal  his  rage,  disappointment,  and 
surprise ;  and  in  the  passage  (I  have  no  doubt)  was 
shaken  by  St.  Vitus. 

I  was  disgusted  by  this  interview ;  it  struck  me  hard 
to  be  suspected  on  all  hands,  and  to  hear  again  from 
this  trafficker  what  I  had  heard  already  from  Jim's 
wife ;  and  yet  my  strongest  impression  was  different 
and  might  rather  be  described  as  an  impersonal  fear. 
There  was  something  against  nature  in  the  man's  craven 
impudence;  it  was  as  though  a  lamb  had  butted  me; 
such  daring  at  the  hands  of  such  a  dastard,  implied 
unchangeable  resolve,  a  great  pressure  of  necessity,  and 
powerful  means.  I  thought  of  the  unknown  Carthew, 
and  it  sickened  me  to  see  this  ferret  on  his  trail. 

Upon  inquiry  I  found  the  lawyer  was  but  just  dis- 
barred for  some  malpractice ;  and  the  discovery  added 
excessively  to  my  disquiet.     Here  was  a  rascal  without 


TRAVELS   WITH   A   SHYSTER.  381 

money  or  the  means  of  making  it,  thrust  out  of  the 
doors  of  his  own  trade,  publicly  shamed,  and  doubtless 
in  a  deuce  of  a  bad  temper  with  the  universe.  Here,  on 
the  other  hand,  was  a  man  with  a  secret ;  rich,  terrified, 
practically  in  hiding ;  who  had  been  willing  to  pa,y  ten 
thousand  pounds  for  the  bones  of  the  Flying  Scud.  I 
slipped  insensibly  into  a  mental  alliance  "with  the  vic- 
tim ;  the  business  weighed  on  me ;  all  day  long,  I  was 
wondering  how  much  the  lawyer  knew,  how  much  he 
guessed,  and  when  he  would  open  his  attack. 

Some  of  these  problems  are  unsolved  to  this  day ; 
others  were  soon  made  clear.  Where  he  got  Carthew's 
name  is  still  a  mystery ;  perhaps  some  sailor  on  the 
Tempest,  perhaps  my  own  sea-lawyer  served  him  for  a 
tool ;  but  I  was  actually  at  his  elbow  when  he  learned 
the  address.  It  fell  so.  One  evening,  when  I  had  an 
engagement  and  was  killing  time  until  the  hour,  I 
chanced  to  walk  in  the  court  of  the  hotel  while  the 
band  played.  The  place  was  bright  as  day  with  the 
electric  light ;  and  I  recognised,  at  some  distance  among 
the  loiterers,  the  person  of  Bellairs  in  talk  with  a  gen- 
tleman, whose  face  appeared  familiar.  It  was  certainly 
some  one  I  had  seen,  and  seen  receutl}^;  but  who  or 
where,  I  knew  not.  A  porter  standing  hard  by,  gave 
me  the  necessary  hint.  The  stranger  was  an  English 
navy  man,  invalided  home  from  Honolulu,  where  he  had 
left  his  ship ;  indeed  it  was  only  from  the  change  of 
clothes  and  the  effects  of  sickness,  that  I  had  not  imme* 


382  THE   WKECKER. 

diately  recognised  my  friend  and  correspondent,  Lieu- 
tenant Sebright. 

The  conjunction  of  these  planets  seeming  ominous,  I 
drew  near;  but  it  seemed  Bellairs  had  done  his  busi- 
ness ;  he  vanished  in  the  crowd,  and  I  found  my  officer 
alone. 

"  Do  you  know  whom  you  have  been  talking  to,  Mr. 
Sebright  ?  "  I  began. 

"  No,"  said  he.  "  I  don't  know  him  from  Adam. 
Anything  wrong  ?  " 

"He  is  a  disreputable  lawyer,  recently  disbarred," 
said  I.  "  I  wish  I  had  seen  you  in  time.  I  trust  you 
told  him  nothing  about  Carthew  ?  " 

He  flushed  to  his  ears.  "  I'm  awfully  sorry,"  he  said. 
"  He  seemed  civil,  and  I  wanted  to  get  rid  of  him.  It 
was  only  the  address  he  asked." 

"  And  you  gave  it  ?  "  I  cried. 

"  I'm  really  awfully  sorry,"  said  Sebright.  "  I'm 
afraid  I  did." 

"  God  forgive  you  ! "  was  my  only  comment,  and  I 
turned  my  back  upon  the  blunderer. 

The  fat  was  in  the  fire  now :  Bellairs  had  the  address, 
and  I  was  the  more  deceived  or  Carthew  would  have 
news  of  him.  So  strong  was  this  impression,  and  so 
painful,  that  the  next  morning  I  had  the  curiosity  to  pay 
the  lawyer's  den  a  visit.  An  old  woman  was  scrubbing 
the  stair,  and  the  board  was  down. 

"  Lawyer   Bellairs  ?  "   said   the   old   woman.     "  Gone 


TRAVELS    WITH    A    SHYSTER.  383 

East  this  morning.      There's  Lawyer  Dean  next    block 
up." 

I  did  not  trouble  Lawyer  Dean,  but  walked  slowly 
back  to  my  hotel,  ruminating  as  I  went.  The  image  of 
the  old  woman  washing  that  desecrated  stair  had  struck 
my  fancy;  it  seemed  that  all  the  water-supply  of  the 
city  and  all  the  soap  in  the  State  would  scarce  suffice  to 
cleanse  it,  it  had  been  so  long  a  clearing-house  of  dingy 
secrets  and  a  factory  of  sordid  fraud.  And  now  the 
corner  was  untenanted;  some  judge,  like  a  careful 
housewife,  had  knocked  down  the  web,  and  the  bloated 
spider  was  scuttling  elsewhere  after  new  victims.  I  had 
of  late  (as  I  have  said)  insensibly  taken  sides  with 
Carthew ;  now  when  his  enemy  was  at  his  heels,  my 
interest  grew  more  warm ;  and  I  began  to  wonder  if  I 
could  not  help.  The  drama  of  the  Flying  Scud  was 
entering  on  a  new  phase.  It  had  been  singular  from  the 
first :  it  promised  an  extraordinary  conclusion ;  and  I 
who  had  paid  so  much  to  learn  the  beginning,  might  pay 
a  little  more  and  see  the  end.  I  lingered  in  San  Fran- 
cisco, indemnifying  myself  after  the  hardships  of  the 
cruise,  spending  money,  regretting  it,  continually  promis- 
ing departure  for  the  morrow.  Why  not  go  indeed,  and 
keep  a  watch  upon  Bellairs  ?  If  I  missed  him,  there 
was  no  harm  done,  I  was  the  nearer  Paris.  If  I  found 
and  kept  his  trail,  it  was  hard  if  I  could  not  put  some 
stick  in  his  machinery,  and  at  the  worst  I  could  promise 
myself  interesting  scenes  and  revelations. 


384  THE   WRECKER. 

In  such  a  mixed  humour,  I  made  up  what  it  pleases  me 
to  call  my  mind,  and  once  more  involved  myself  in  the 
story  of  Carthew  and  the  Flying  Scud.  The  same  night 
I  wrote  a  letter  of  farewell  to  Jim,  and  one  of  anxious 
warning  to  De  Urquart  begging  him  to  set  Carthew  on 
his  guard;  the  morrow  saw  me  in  the  ferry-boat;  and  ten 
days  later,  I  was  walking  the  hurricane  deck  on  the  City 
of  Denver.  By  that  time  my  mind  was  pretty  much  made 
down  again,  its  natural  condition :  I  told  myself  that  I 
was  bound  for  Paris  or  Fontainebleau  to  resume  the  study 
of  the  arts ;  and  I  thought  no  more  of  Carthew  or  Bel- 
lairs,  or  only  to  smile  at  my  own  fondness.  The  one  I 
could  not  serve,  even  if  I  wanted;  the  other  I  had  no 
means  of  finding,  even  if  I  could  have  at  all  influenced 
him  after  he  was  found. 

And  for  all  that,  I  was  close  on  the  heels  of  an  absurd 
adventure.  My  neighbour  at  table  that  evening  was  a 
'Frisco  man  whom  I  knew  slightly.  I  found  he  had 
crossed  the  plains  two  days  in  front  of  me,  and  this 
was  the  first  steamer  that  had  left  New  York  for 
Europe  since  his  arrival.  Two  days  before  me,  meant 
a  day  before  Bellairs ;  and  dinner  was  scarce  done 
before  I  was  closeted  with  the  purser. 

"  Bellairs  ?  "  he  repeated.  "  Not  in  the  saloon,  I  am 
sure.  He  may  be  in  the  second  class.  The  lists  are  not 
made  out,  but  — Hullo!  'Harry  D.  Bellairs?'  That 
the  name  ?     He's  there  right  enough." 

And  the  next  morning  I  saw  him  on  the  forward 
deck,  sitting  in  a  chair,  a  book  i  ■  his  hand,  a  shabby 


TRAVELS   WITH    A   SHYSTER.  385 

puma  skin  rug  about  his  knees  :  the  picture  of  respect- 
able decay.  Off  and  on,  I  kept  him  in  my  eye.  lie 
read  a  good  deal,  he  stood  and  looked  upon  the  sea,  he 
talked  occasionally  with  his  neighbours,  and  once  when 
a  child  fell  he  picked  it  up  and  soothed  it.  I  damned 
him  in  my  heart;  the  book,  which  I  was  sure  he  did 
not  read  —  the  sea,  to  which  I  was  ready  to  take  oath 
he  was  indifferent  —  the  child,  whom  I  was  certain  he 
would  as  lieve  have  tossed  overboard  —  all  seemed  to 
me  elements  in  a  theatrical  performance;  and  I  made 
no  doubt  he  was  already  nosing  after  the  secrets  of  his 
fellow-passengers.  I  took  no  pains  to  conceal  myself, 
my  scorn  for  the  creature  being  as  strong  as  my  dis- 
gust. But  he  never  looked  my  way,  and  it  was  night 
before  I  learned  he  had  observed  me. 

I  was  smoking  by  the  engine-room  door,  for  the  air 
was  a  little  sharp,  when  a  voice  rose  close  beside  me 
in  the  darkness. 

"  I  beg  your  pardon,  Mr.  Dodd  ?  "  it  said. 

"  That  you,  Bellairs  ?  "  I  replied. 

"  A  single  word,  sir.  Your  presence  on  this  ship  has 
no  connection  with  our  interview  ?  "  he  asked.  "  You 
have  no  idea,  Mr.  Dodd,  of  returning  upon  your  deter- 
mination ?  " 

"  None,"  said  I ;  and  then,  seeing  he  still  lingered,  1 
was  polite  enough  to  add  "  Good  evening ;  "  at  which 
he  sighed  and  went  away. 

The  next  day,  he  was  there  again  with  the  chair  and 


386  THE   WRECKER. 

the  puma  skin ;  read  his  book  and  looked  at  the  sea  with 
the  same  constancy ;  and  though  there  was  no  child  to 
be  picked  up,  I  observed  him  to  attend  repeatedly  on  a 
sick  woman.  Nothing  fosters  suspicion  like  the  act  of 
watching ;  a  man  spied  upon  can  hardly  blow  his  nose 
but  we  accuse  him  of  designs ;  and  I  took  an  early 
opportunity  to  go  forward  and  see  the  woman  for  my- 
self. She  was  poor,  elderly,  and  painfully  plain ;  I  stood 
abashed  at  the  sight,  felt  I  owed  Bellairs  amends  for 
the  injustice  of  my  thoughts,  and  seeing  him  standing 
by  the  rail  in  his  usual  attitude  of  contemplation, 
walked  up  and  addressed  him  by  name. 

"  You  seem  very  fond  of  the  sea,"  said  I. 

"  I  may  really  call  it  a  passion,  Mr.  Dodd,"  he  replied. 
"  And  the  tall  cataract  haunted  me  like  a  passion,"  he 
quoted.  "  I  never  weary  of  the  sea,  sir.  This  is  my 
first  ocean  voyage.  I  find  it  a  glorious  experience." 
And  once  more  my  disbarred  lawyer  dropped  into 
poetry  :  "Boll  on,  thou  deejy  and  dark  blue  ocean,  roll!" 

Though  I  had  learned  the  piece  in  my  reading-book 
at  school,  I  came  into  the  world  a  little  too  late  on  the 
one  hand  —  and  I  daresay  a  little  too  early  on  the  other 
— to  think  much  of  Byron;  and  the  sonorous  verse,  pro- 
digiously well  delivered,  struck  me  with  surprise'.. 

"You  are  fond  of  poetry,  too  ?"  I  asked. 

"  I  am  a  great  reader,"  he  replied.  "  At  one  time  I 
had  begun  to  amass  quite  a  small  but  well  selected 
library  ;  and  when  that  was  scattered,  I  still  managed  to 


TRAVELS   WITH   A   SHYSTER.  387 

preserve  a  few  volumes  —  cliiefly  of  pieces  designed  for 
recitation  —  wliicli  have  been  my  travelling  companions." 

"  Is  that  one  of  them  ?  "  I  asked,  pointing  to  the  vol- 
ume in  his  hand. 

"  No,  sir,"  he  replied,  showing  me  a  translation  of  the 
/Sorrows  of  Werther,  "  that  is  a  novel  I  picked  up  some 
time  ago.  It  has  afforded  me  great  pleasure,  though 
immoral." 

"  0,  immoral !  "  cried  I,  indignant  as  usual  at  any 
implication  of  art  and  ethics. 

"  Surely  you  cannot  deny  that,  sir  —  if  you  know  the 
book,"  he  said.  "The  passion  is  illicit,  although  cer- 
tainly drawn  with  a  good  deal  of  pathos.  It  is  not  a 
work  one  could  possibly  put  into  the  hands  of  a  lady; 
which  is  to  be  regretted  on  all  accounts,  for  I  do  not 
know  how  it  may  strike  you ;  but  it  seems  to  me  —  as 
a  depiction,  if  I  make  myself  clear  —  to  rise  high  above 
its  compeers,  even  famous  compeers.  Even  in  Scott, 
Dickens,  Thackeray,  or  Hawthorne,  the  sentiment  of 
love  appears  to  me  to  be  frequently  done  less  justice 
to." 

"  You  are  expressing  a  very  general  opinion,"  said  I. 

"Is  that  so,  indeed,  sir?"  he  exclaimed,  with  unmis- 
takable excitement.  "  Is  the  book  well  known  ?  and 
who  was  Go-eath?  I  am  interested  in  that,  because 
upon  the  title-page  the  usual  initials  are  omitted,  and  it 
runs  simply  'by  Go-eath.'  Was  he  an  author  of  dis- 
tinction ?     Has  he  written  other  works  ?  " 


888  THE  WRECKEE. 

Such  was  our  first  interview,  the  first  of  many;  and 
in  all  he  showed  the  same  attractive  qualities  and 
defects.  His  taste  for  literature  was  native  and  unaf- 
fected; his  sentimentality,  although  extreme  and  a 
thought  ridiculous,  was  plainly  genuine.  I  wondered  at 
my  own  innocent  wonder.  I  knew  that  Homer  nodded, 
that  Caesar  had  compiled  a  jest-book,  that  Turner  lived 
by  preference  the  life  of  Puggy  Booth,  that  Shelley 
made  paper  boats,  and  Wordsworth  wore  green  specta- 
cles !  and  with  all  this  mass  of  evidence  before  me,  I 
had  expected  Bellairs  to  be  entirely  of  one  piece,  sub- 
dued to  what  he  worked  in,  a  spy  all  through.  As 
I  abominated  the  man's  trade,  so  I  had  expected  to 
detest  the  man  himself;  and  behold,  I  liked  him.  Poor 
devil !  he  was  essentially  a  man  on  wires,  all  sensibility 
and  tremor,  brimful  of  a  cheap  poetry,  not  without  parts, 
quite  without  courage.  His  boldness  was  despair;  the 
gulf  behind  him  thrust  him  on;  he  was  one  of  those 
who  might  commit  a  murder  rather  than  confess  the 
theft  of  a  postage-stamp,  I  was  sure  that  his  coming 
interview  with  Carthew  rode  his  imagination  like  a 
nightmare ;  when  the  thought  crossed  his  mind,  I  used 
to  think  I  knew  of  it,  and  that  the  qualm  appeared  in 
his  face  visibly.  Yet  he  would  never  flinch :  necessity 
stalking  at  his  back,  famine  (his  old  pursuer)  talking  in 
his  ear ;  and  I  used  to  wonder  whether  I  most  admired, 
or  most  despised,  this  quivering  heroism  for  evil.  The 
image  that  occurred  to  me  after  his  visit  was  just;  I  had 


TRAVELS    WITH    A    SHYSTER.  389 

been  butted  by  a  lamb ;  and  tbe  pbase  of  life  tbat  I  was 
now  studying  might  be  called  the  Revolt  of  a  Sheep. 

It  could  be  said  of  him  that  he  had  learned  in  sorrow 
what  he  taught  in  song  —  or  wrong;  and  his  life  was 
that  of  one  of  his  victims.  He  was  born  in  the  back 
parts  of  the  State  of  New  York;  his  father  a  farmer, 
who  became  subsequently  bankrupt  and  went  West. 
The  lawyer  and  money-lender  who  had  ruined  this  poor 
family  seems  to  have  conceived  in  the  end  a  feeling 
of  remorse ;  he  turned  the  father  out  indeed,  but  he 
offered,  in  compensation,  to  charge  himself  with  one  of 
the  sons :  and  Harry,  the  fifth  child  and  already  sickly, 
was  chosen  to  be  left  behind.  He  made  himself  useful 
in  the  office ;  picked  up  the  scattered  rudiments  of  an 
education ;  read  right  and  left ;  attended  and  debated  at 
the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association ;  and  in  all  his 
early  years,  was  the  model  for  a  good  story-book.  His 
landlady's  daughter  was  his  bane.  He  showed  me  her 
photograph;  she  was  a  big,  handsome,  dashing,  dressy, 
vulgar  hussy,  without  character,  without  tenderness, 
without  mind,  and  (as  the  result  proved)  without  virtue. 
The  sickly  and  timid  boy  v\^as  in  the  house;  he  was 
handy ;  when  she  was  otherwise  unoccupied,  she  used 
and  plaj'ed  with  him :  Eomeo  and  Cressida ;  till  in  that 
dreary  life  of  a  poor  boy  in  a  country  town,  she  grew  to 
be  the  light  of  his  days  and  the  subject  of  his  dreams. 
He  worked  hard,  like  Jacob,  for  a  wife;  he  surpassed 
his  patron  in  sharp  practice ;  he  was  made  head  clerk ; 


390  THE   "WRECKER. 

and  tlie  same  night,  encouraged  by  a  hundred  freedoms, 
depressed  by  the  sense  of  his  youth  and  his  infirmities, 
he  offered  marriage  and  was  received  with  laughter. 
Not  a  year  had  passed,  before  his  master,  conscious  of 
growing  infirmities,  took  him  for  a  partner ;  he  proposed 
again;  he  was  accepted;  led  two  years  of  troubled 
married  life ;  and  awoke  one  morning  to  find  his  wife 
had  run  away  with  a  dashing  drummer,  and  had  left  him 
heavily  in  debt.  The  debt,  and  not  the  drummer,  was 
supposed  to  be  the  cause  of  the  hegira ;  she  had  con- 
cealed her  liabilities,  they  were  on  the  point  of  bursting 
forth,  she  was  weary  of  Bellairs ;  and  she  took  the 
drummer  as  she  might  have  taken  a  cab.  The  blow  disa- 
bled her  husband,  his  partner  was  dead ;  he  was  now  alone 
in  the  biisiness,  for  which  he  was  no  longer  fit;  the 
debts  hampered  him  ;  bankruptcy  followed ;  and  he  fled 
from  city  to  city,  falling  daily  into  lower  practice.  It  is 
to  be  considered  that  he  had  been  taught,  and  had 
learned  as  a  delightful  duty,  a  kind  of  business  whose 
highest  merit  is  to  escape  the  commentaries  of  the 
bench:  that  of  the  usurious  lawyer  in  a  county  town. 
With  this  training,  he  was  now  shot,  a  penniless  stranger, 
into  the  deeper  gulfs  of  cities ;  and  the  result  is  scarce 
a  thing  to  be  surprised  at. 

"  Have  you  heard  of  your  wife  again  ?  "  I  asked. 

He  displayed  a  pitiful  agitation.  "I  am  afraid  you 
will  think  ill  of  me,"  he  said. 

"  Have  you  taken  her  back  ?  "  I  asked. 


TRAVELS    WITH    A   SHYSTER.  391 

"No,  sir.  I  trust  I  have  too  mucli  self-respect,"  lie 
answered,  ''and,  at  least,  I  was  never  tempted.  She 
won't  come,  she  dislikes,  she  seems  to  have  conceived  a 
positive  distaste  for  me,  and  yet  I  was  considered  an 
indulgent  husband." 

"  You  are  still  in  relations,  then  ?  "  I  asked. 

"  I  place  myself  in  your  hands,  Mr.  Dodd,"  he  replied. 
"  The  world  is  very  hard ;  I  have  found  it  bitter  hard 
myself  —  bitter  hard  to  live.  How  much  worse  for  a 
woman,  and  one  who  has  placed  herself  (by  her  own 
misconduct,  I  am  far  from  denying  that)  in  so  unfortu- 
nate a  position ! " 

"  In  short,  you  support  her  ?  "  I  suggested. 

"I  cannot  deny  it.  I  practically  do,"  he  admitted. 
"  It  has  been  a  mill-stone  round  my  neck.  But  I  think 
she  is  grateful.     You  can  see  for  yourself." 

He  handed  me  a  letter  in  a  sprawling,  ignorant  hand, 
but  written  with  violet  ink  on  fine,  pink  paper  with  a 
monogram.  It  was  very  foolishly  expressed,  and  I 
thought  (except  for  a  few  obvious  cajoleries)  very  heart- 
less and  greedy  in  meaning.  The  writer  said  she  had 
been  sick,  which  I  disbelieved ;  declared  the  last  remit- 
tance was  all  gone  in  doctor's  bills,  for  which  I  took  the 
liberty  of  substituting  dress,  drink,  and  mono'grams ; 
and  prayed  for  an  increase,  which  I  could  only  hope  had 
been  denied  her. 

"  I  think  she  is  really  grateful  ?  "  he  asked,  with  some 
eagerness,  as  I  returned  it. 


392  THE   WRECKED. 

"  I  daresay,"  said  I.     "  Has  she  any  claim  on  you  ?  " 

"  0,  no,  sir.  I  divorced  her,"  he  replied.  "  I  have  a 
very  strong  sense  of  self-respect  in  such  matters,  and  I 
divorced  her  immediately." 

"  What  sort  of  life  is  she  leading  now  ?  "  I  asked. 

"I  will  not  deceive  you,  Mr.  Dodd.  I  do  not  know, 
I  make  a  point  of  not  knowing ;  it  appears  more  digni- 
fied. I  have  been  very  harshly  criticised,"  he  added, 
sighing. 

It  will  be  seen  that  I  had  fallen  into  an  ignominious 
intimacy  with  the  man  I  had  gone  out  to  thwart.  My 
pity  for  the  creature,  his  admiration  for  myself,  his 
pleasure  in  my  society,  which  was  clearly  unassumed, 
were  the  bonds  with  which  I  was  fettered ;  perhaps  I 
should  add,  in  honesty,  my  own  ill-regulated  interest  in 
the  phases  of  life  and  human  character.  The  fact  is  (at 
least)  that  we  spent  hours  together  dail}^,  and  that  I  was 
nearly  as  much  on  the  forward  deck  as  in  the  saloon. 
Yet  all  the  while  I  could  never  forget  he  was  a  shabby 
trickster,  embarked  that  very  moment  in  a  dirty  enter- 
prise. I  used  to  tell  myself  at  first  that  our  acquaintance 
was  a  stroke  of  art,  and  that  I  was  somehow  fortifying 

Carthew.     I  told  myself,  I  say ;  but  I  was  no  such  fool 

ff 

as  to  believe  it,  even  then.  In  these  circumstances  I 
displayed  the  two  chief  qualities  of  my  character  on  the 
largest  scale  —  my  helplessness  and  my  instinctive  love 
of  procrastination  —  and  fell  upon  a  course  of  action  so 
ridiculous  that  I  blush  when  I  recall  it. 


TRAVELS   WITH   A   SHYSTEPw  393 

"We  readied  Liverpool  one  forenoon,  the  rain  falling 
thickly  and  insidiously  on  the  filthy  town.  I  had  no 
plans,  beyond  a  sensible  unwillingness  to  let  my  rascal 
escape  ;  and  I  ended  by  going  to  the  same  inn  with  him, 
dining  with  him,  walking  with  him  in  the  wet  streets, 
and  hearing  with  him  in  a  penny  gaff  that  venerable 
piece,  The  Ticket-of-Leave  3Ian.  It  was  one  of  his  first 
visits  to  a  theatre,  against  which  places  of  entertainment 
he  had  a  strong  prejudice  ;  and  his  innocent,  pompous 
talk,  innocent  old  quotations,  and  innocent  reverence  for 
the  character  of  Hawkshaw  delighted  me  beyond  relief. 
In  charity  to  myself,  I  dwell  upon  and  perhaps  exagger- 
ate my  pleasures.  I  have  need  of  all  conceivable  excuses, 
when  I  confess  that  I  went  to  bed  without  one  word 
upon  the  matter  of  Carthew,  but  not  without  having  cov- 
enanted with  my  rascal  for  a  visit  to  Chester  the  next 
day.  At  Chester  we  did  the  cathedral,  walked  on  the 
Walls,  discussed  Shakespeare  and  the  musical  glasses  — 
and  made  a  fresh  engagement  for  the  morrow.  I  do  not 
know,  and  I  am  glad  to  have  forgotten,  how  long  these 
travels  were  continued.  "We  visited  at  least,  by  singular 
zigzags,  Stratford,  Warwick,  Coventry,  Gloucester,  Bris- 
tol, Bath,  and  Wells.  At  each  stage  we  spoke  dutifully 
of  the  scene  and  its  associations ;  I  sketched,  the  Shyster 
spouted  poetry  and  copied  epitaphs.  Who  could  doubt 
we  were  the  usual  Americans,  travelling  with  a  design  of 
eelf-improvement  ?  Who  was  to  guess  that  one  was  a 
blackmailer,  trembling  to  approach  the  scene  of  action 


394  THE   WRECKER. 

—  the  other  a  helpless,  amateur  detective,  waiting  on 
events. 

It  is  unnecessary  to  remark  that  none  occurred,  or  nono 
the  least  suitable  with  my  design  of  protecting  Carthew. 
Two  trifles,  indeed,  completed  though  they  scarcely  changed 
my  conception  of  the  Shyster.  The  first  was  observed  in 
Gloucester,  where  we  spent  Sunday,  and  I  proposed  we 
should  hear  service  in  the  cathedral.  To  niy  surprise, 
the  creature  had  an  ism  of  his  own,  to  which  he  was 
loyal ;  and  he  left  me  to  go  alone  to  the  cathedral  —  or 
perhaps  not  to  go  at  all  —  and  stole  off  down  a  deserted 
alley  to  some  Bethel  or  Ebenezer  of  the  proper  shade. 
When  we  met  again  at  lunch,  I  rallied  him,  and  he  grew 
restive. 

"You  need  employ  no  circumlocutions  with  me,  Mr. 
Dodd,"  he  said,  suddenly.  "You  regard  my  behaviour 
from  an  unfavourable  point  of  view:  you  regard  me,  I 
much  fear,  as  hypocritical." 

I  was  somewhat  confused  by  the  attack.  "  You  know 
what  I  think  of  your  trade,"  I  replied,  lamely  and  coarsely. 

"  Excuse  me,  if  I  seem  to  press  the  subject,"  he  con- 
tinued, "but  if  you  think  my  life  erroneous,  would  you 
have  me  neglect  the  means  of  grace  ?  Because  you  con- 
sider me  in  the  wrong  on  one  point,  would  you  have  me 
place  myself  on  the  wi'ong  in  all  ?  Surely,  sir,  the  church 
is  for  the  sinner." 

"  Did  you  ask  a  blessing  on  your  present  enterprise  ?  " 
I  sneered. 


TRAVELS   WITH   A   SHYSTER.  395 

He  had  a  bad  attack  of  St.  Vitus,  his  face  was  changed, 
and  his  eyes  flashed.  "I  will  tell  you  what  I  did!"  he 
cried.  "  I  prayed  for  an  unfortunate  man  and  a  wretched 
woman  whom  he  tries  to  su2:)port." 

I  cannot  pretend  that  I  found  any  repartee. 

The  second  incident  was  at  Bristol,  where  I  lost  sight 
of  my  gentleman  some  hours.  From  this  eclipse,  he 
returned  to  me  with  thick  speech,  wandering  footsteps, 
and  a  back  all  whitened  with  plaster,  I  had  half  ex- 
pected, yet  I  could  have  wept  to  see  it.  All  disabilities 
were  piled  on  that  weak  back  —  domestic  misfortune, 
nervous  disease,  a  displeasing  exterior,  empty  pockets, 
and  the  slavery  of  vice. 

I  will  never  deny  that  our  prolonged  conjunction  was 
the  result  of  double  cowardice.  Each  was  afraid  to  leave 
the  other,  each  was  afraid  to  speak,  or  knew  not  what  to 
say.  Save  for  my  ill-judged  allusion  at  Gloucester, 
the  subject  uppermost  in  both  our  minds  was  buried. 
Carthew,  Stallbridge-le-Carthew,  Stallbridge-Minster  — 
which  we  had  long  since  (and  severally)  identified  to  be 
the  nearest  station  —  even  the  name  of  Dorsetshire  was 
studiously  avoided.  And  yet  we  were  making  progress 
all  the  time,  tacking  across  broad  England  like  an  un- 
weatherly  vessel  on  a  wind;  approaching  our  destina- 
tion, not  openly,  but  by  a  sort  of  flying  sap.  And  at 
length,  I  can  scarce  tell  how,  we  were  set  down  by  a 
dilatory  butt-end  of  local  train  on  the  untenanted  plat- 
form of  Stallbridge-Minster. 


396  THE   WRECKER. 

The  town  was  ancient  and  compact ;  a  domino  of  tiled 
houses  and  walled  gardens,  dwarfed  by  the  dispropor- 
tionate bigness  of  the  chni-ch.  From  the  midst  of  the 
thoroughfare  which  divided  it  in  half,  fields  and  trees 
were  visible  at  either  end ;  and  through  the  sally-port  of 
every  street,  there  flowed  in  from  the  country  a  silent 
invasion  of  green  grass.  Bees  and  birds  a^^peared  to 
make  the  majority  of  the  inhabitants ;  every  garden  had 
its  row  of  hives,  the  eaves  of  every  house  were  plastered 
with  the  nests  of  swallows,  and  the  pinnacles  of  the 
church  were  flickered  about  all  day  long  by  a  multitude 
of  wings.  The  town  was  of  Eoman  foundation ;  and  as 
I  looked  out  that  afternoon  from  the  low  windows  of  the 
inn,  I  should  scarce  have  been  surprised  to  see  a  cen- 
turion coming  up  the  street  with  a  fatigue  draft  of 
legionaries.  In  short,  Stallbridge-Minster  was  one  of 
those  towns  which  appear  to  be  maintained  by  England 
for  the  instruction  and  delight  of  the  American  rambler; 
to  which  he  seems  guided  by  an  instinct  not  less  surpris- 
ing than  the  setter's ;  and  which  he  visits  and  quits  with 
equal  enthusiasm. 

I  was  not  at  all  in  the  humour  of  the  tourist.  I  had 
wasted  weeks  of  time  and  accomplished  nothing ;  we  were 
on  the  eve  of  the  engagement,  and  I  had  neither  plans 
nor  allies ;  I  had  thrust  myself  into  the  trade  of  private 
providence  and  amateur  detective ;  I  was  spending  money 
and  I  was  reaping  disgrace.  All  the  time,  I  kept  telling 
myself  that  I  must  at  least  speak ;  that  this  ignominious 


TRAVELS  WITH   A   SHYSTER.  897 

silence  should  have  been  broken  long  ago,  and  must  be 
broken  now.  I  should  have  broken  it  when  he  first  pro- 
posed to  come  to  Stallbridge-Minster ;  I  should  have 
broken  it  in  the  train  ;  I  should  break  it  there  and  then, 
on  the  inn  doorstep,  as  the  omnibus  rolled  off.  I  turned 
toward  him  at  the  thought ;  he  seemed  to  wince,  the 
words  died  on  my  lips,  and  I  proposed  instead  that  we 
should  visit  the  Minster. 

While  we  were  engaged  upon  this  duty,  it  came  on  to 
rain  in  a  manner  worthy  of  the  tropics.  The  vault  re- 
verberated ;  every  gargoyle  instantly  poured  its  full 
discharge ;  we  waded  back  to  the  inn,  ankle  deep  in 
impromptu  bro'oks ;  and  the  rest  of  the  afternoon  sat 
weatherbound,  hearkening  to  the  sonorous  deluge.  For 
two  hours  I  talked  of  indifferent  matters,  laboriously 
feeding  the  conversation ;  for  two  hours  my  mind  was 
quite  made  up  to  do  my  duty  instantly  —  and  at  each 
particular  instant  I  postponed  it  till  the  next.  To  screw 
up  my  faltering  courage,  I  called  at  dinner  for  some 
sparkling  wine.  It  proved  when  it  came  to  be  detestable  ; 
I  could  not  put  it  to  my  lips ;  and  Bellairs,  who  had  as 
much  palate  as  a  weevil,  was  left  to  finish  it  himself. 
Doubtless  the  wine  flushed  him ;  doubtless  he  may  have 
observed  my  embarrassment  of  the  afternoon  ;  doubtless 
he  was  conscious  that  we  were  approaching  a  crisis,  and 
that  that  evening,  if  I  did  not  join  with  him,  I  must 
declare  myself  an  open  enemy.  At  least  he  fled.  Dinner 
was  done ;  this  was  the  time  when  I  had  bound  myself  to 


398  THE   WRECKER, 

break  my  silence ;  uo  more  delays  were  to  be  allowed, 
no  more  excuses  received.  I  went  upstairs  after  some 
tobacco  ;  which  I  felt  to  be  a  mere  necessity  in  the 
circumstances ;  and  when  I  returned,  the  man  was  gone. 
The  waiter  told  me  he  had  left  the  house. 

The  rain  still  plumped,  like  a  vast  shower-bath,  over 
the  deserted  town.  The  night  was  dark  and  windless :  the 
street  lit  glimmeringly  from  end  to  end,  lamps,  house 
windows,  and  the  reflections  in  the  rain-pools  all  contrib- 
uting. From  a  public-house  on  the  other  side  of  the  way, 
I  heard  a  harp  twang  and  a  doleful  voice  upraised  in  the 
"  Larboard  Watch,"  "  The  Anchor's  Weighed,"  and  other 
naval  ditties.  Where  had  my  Shyster  wandered?  In 
all  likelihood  to  that  lyrical  tavern ;  there  was  no  choice 
of  diversion  ;  in  comparison  with  Stallbridge-Minster  on 
a  rainy  night,  a  sheepfold  would  seem  gay. 

Again  I  passed  in  review  the  points  of  my  interview, 
on  which  I  was  always  constantly  resolved  so  long  as 
my  adversary  was  absent  from  the  scene:  and  again 
they  struck  me  as  inadequate.  From  this  dispiriting 
exercise  I  turned  to  the  native  amusements  of  the  inn 
coffee-room,  and  studied  for  some  time  the  mezzotints 
that  frowned  upon  the  wall.  The  railway  guide,  after 
showing  me  how  soon  I  could  leave  Stallbridge  and  how 
quickly  I  could  reach  Paris,  failed  to  hold  my  attention. 
An  illustrated  advertisement  book  of  hotels  brought  me 
very  low  indeed ;  and  when  it  came  to  the  local  paper, 
I  could  have  wept.     At  this  point,  I  found  a  passing 


TRAVELS   WITH   A   SHYSTER.  399 

solace  in  a  copy  of  Whittaker's  Almanac,  and  obtained 
in  fifty  minutes  more  information  than  I  have  yet  been 
able  to  use. 

Then  a  fresh  apprehension  assailed  me.  Suppose 
Bellairs  had  given  me  the  slip  ?  suppose  he  was  now 
rolling  on  the  road  to  Stallbridge-le-Carthew  ?  or  per- 
haps there  already  and  laying  before  a  very  wliite-faced 
auditor  his  threats  and  propositions  ?  A  hasty  person 
might  have  instantly  pursued.  Whatever  I  am,  I  am 
not  hasty,  and  I  was  aware  of  three  grave  objections. 
In  the  first  place,  I  could  not  be  certain  that  Bellairs 
was  gone.  In  the  second,  I  had  no  taste  whatever  for  a 
long  drive  at  that  hour  of  the  night  and  in  so  merciless 
a  rain.  In  the  third,  I  had  no  idea  how  I  was  to  get 
admitted  if  I  went,  and  no  idea  what  I  should  say  if  I 
got  admitted.  "  In  short,"  I  concluded,  "  the  whole  situ- 
ation is  the  merest  farce.  You  have  thrust  yourself  in 
where  you  had  no  business  and  have  no  power.  You 
would  be  quite  as  useful  in  San  Francisco ;  far  happier 
in  Paris  ;  and  being  (by  the  wrath  of  God)  at  Stall- 
bridge-Minster,  the  wisest  thing  is  to  go  quietly  to 
bed."  On  the  way  to  my  room,  I  saw  (in  a  flash)  that 
which  I  ought  to  have  done  long  ago,  and  which  it  was 
now  too  late  to  think  of  —  written  to  Carthew,  I  mean, 
detailing  the  facts  and  describing  Bellairs,  letting  him 
defend  himself  if  he  were  able,  and  giving  him  time  to 
flee  if  he  were  not.  It  was  the  last  blow  to  ni}^  self- 
respect  ;  and  I  flung  myself  into  my  bed  with  contumely. 


400  THE    WEECKEPw. 

I  have  no  guess  what  hour  it  was,  when  I  was 
wakened  by  the  entrance  of  Bellairs  carrying  a  candle. 
He  had  been  drunk,  for  he  was  bedaubed  with  mire  from 
head  to  foot ;  but  he  was  now  sober  and  under  the  em- 
l)ire  of  some  violent  emotion  wliich  he  controlled  with 
dilHculty.  He  trembled  visibly;  and  more  than  once, 
during  the  interview  which  followed,  tears  suddenly 
and  silently  overflowed  his  cheeks. 

"  I  have  to  ask  your  pardon,  sir,  for  this  untimely 
visit,"  he  said.  "  I  make  no  defence,  I  have  no  excuse, 
I  have  disgraced  myself,  I  am  properly  punished ;  I 
appear  before  you  to  appeal  to  you  in  mercy  for  the 
most  trifling  aid  or,  God  help  me  !  I  fear  I  may  go 
mad." 

"  What  on  earth  is  wrong  ?  "  I  asked. 

"  I  have  been  robbed,"  he  said.  "  I  have  no  defence 
to  offer;  it  was  of  my  own  fault,  I  am  properly  pun- 
ished." 

"  But,  gracious  goodness  me  ! "  I  cried,  "  who  is  there 
to  rob  you  in  a  place  like  this  ?  " 

"I  can  form  no  opinion,"  he  replied.  "I  have  no 
idea.  I  was  lying  in  a  ditch  inanimate.  This  is  a 
degrading  confession,  sir ;  I  can  only  say  in  self-defence 
that  perhaps  (in  your  good  nature)  you  have  made  your- 
self partly  responsible  for  my  shame.  I  am  not  used  to 
these  rich  wines." 

"  In  what  form  was  your  money  ?  Perhaps  it  may 
be  traced,"  I  suggested. 


TRAVELS    WITH    A    SHYSTER.  401 

^  It  was  in  English  sovereigns.  I  changed  it  in  New 
York;  I  got  very  good  exchange/'  he  said,  and  then, 
with  a  momentary  outbreak,  "  God  in  heaven,  how  I 
toiled  for  it !  "  he  cried, 

''That  doesn't  sound  encouraging,"  said  I.  "It  may 
be  worth  while  to  apply  to  the  police,  but  it  doesn't 
sound  a  hopeful  case." 

"And  I  have  no  hope  in  that  direction."  said  Bel- 
lairs.  "My  hopes,  Mr.  Dodd,  are  all  fixed  upon  your- 
self. I  could  easily  convince  you  that  a  small,  a  very 
small  advance,  would  be  in  the  nature  of  an  excelleut 
investment;  but  I  prefer  to  rely  on  your  humanity. 
Our  acquaintance  began  on  an  unusual  footing;  but  you 
have  now  known  me  for  some  time,  we  have  been  some 
time  —  I  was  going  to  say  we  had  been  almost  intimate. 
Under  the  impulse  of  instinctive  sympathy,  I  have 
bared  my  heart  to  you,  Mr.  Dodd,  as  I  have  done  to 
few ;  and  I  believe  —  I  trust  —  I  may  say  that  I  feel 
sure — you  heard  me  with  a  kindly  sentiment.  This  is 
what  brings  me  to  your  side  at  this  most  inexcusable 
hour.  But  put  yourself  in  my  place  —  how  could  I 
sleep  —  how  could  I  dream  of  sleeping,  in  this  black- 
ness of  remorse  and  despair  ?  There  was  a  friend  at 
hand — so  I  ventured  to  think  of  you;  it  was  instinc- 
tive ;  I  fled  to  your  side,  as  the  drowning  man  clutches 
at  a  straw.  These  expressions  are  not  exaggerated,  they 
scarcely  serve  to  express  the  agitation  of  my  mind. 
And  think,  sir,  how  easily  you  can  restore  me  to  hope 


402  THE   Wr.ECKER. 

and,  I  may  say,  to  reason.  A  small  loan,  wliich  sliall 
be  faithfully  repaid.  Five  hundred  dollars  would  be 
ample."  He  watched  me  with  burning  eyes.  "Four 
hundred  would  do.  I  believe,  Mr.  Dodd,  that  I  could 
manage  with  economy  on  two." 

"And  then  you  will  repay  me  out  of  Carthew's 
pocket  ?  "  I  said.  "  I  am  much  obliged.  But  I  will  tell 
you  what  I  will  do :  I  will  see  you  on  board  a  steamer, 
pay  your  fare  through  to  San  Francisco,  and  place  fifty 
dollars  in  the  purser's  hands,  to  be  given  you  in  New 
York." 

He  drank  in  my  words ;  his  face  represented  an  ec- 
stasy of  cunning  thought.  I  could  read  there,  plain  as 
print,  that  he  but  thought  to  overreach  me. 

"  And  what  am  I  to  do  in  'Frisco  ?  "  he  asked.  "  I  am 
disbarred,  I  have  no  trade,  I  cannot  dig,  to  beg  —  "  he 
paused  in  the  citation.  "  And  you  know  that  I  am  not 
alone,"  he  added,  "  others  depend  upon  me." 

"  I  will  write  to  Pinkerton,"  I  returned.  "  I  feel  sure 
he  can  help  you  to  some  employment,  and  in  the  mean- 
time, and  for  three  months  after  your  arrival,  he  shall 
pay  to  yourself  personally,  on  the  first  and  the  fifteenth, 
twenty-five  dollars." 

"  Mr.  Dodd,  I  scarce  believe  you  can  be  serious  in  this 
offer,"  he  replied.  "  Have  you  forgotten  the  circum- 
stances of  the  case  ?  Do  you  know  these  people  are  the 
magnates  of  the  section  ?  They  were  spoken  of  to-night 
in  the  saloon;  their  wealth  must  amount  to  many  mil- 


TRAVELS   WITH   A   SITYSTER.  403 

lions  of  dollars  in  real  estate  alone ;  their  house  is  one 
of  the  sights  of  the  locality,  and  you  offer  me  a  bribe  of 
a  few  hundred  ! " 

"  I  offer  you  no  bribe,  Mr.  Bellairs,  I  give  you  alms," 
I  returned.  "  I  will  do  nothing  to  forward  you  in  your 
hateful  business ;  yet  I  would  not  willingly  have  you 
starve." 

"  Give  me  a  hundred  dollars  then,  and  be  done  with 
it,"  he  cried. 

"I  will  do  what  I  have  said,  and  neither  more  nor 
less,"  said  I. 

"Take  care,"  he  cried.  "You  are  playing  a  fool's 
game ;  you  are  making  an  enemy  for  nothing ;  you  Avill 
gain  nothing  by  this,  I  warn  you  of  it !  "  And  then  with 
one  of  his  changes,  "Seventy  dollars — only  seventy  — 
in  mercy,  Mr.  Dodd,  in  common  charity.  Don't  dash  the 
bowl  from  my  lips  !  You  have  a  kindly  heart.  Think 
of  my  position,  remember  my  unhappy  wife." 

"  You  should  have  thought  of  her  before,"  said  I.  "  I 
have  made  my  offer,  and  I  wish  to  sleep." 

"  Is  that  your  last  word,  sir  ?  Pray  consider ;  pray 
weigh  both  sides :  my  misery,  your  own  danger.  I 
warn  you  —  I  beseech  you ;  measure  it  well  before  you 
answer,"  so  he  half  pleaded,  half  threatened  me,  with 
clasped  hands. 

"  My  first  word,  and  my  last,"  said  I. 

The  change  upon  the  man  was  shocking.  In  the  storm 
of  anger  that  now  shook  him,  the  lees  of  his  intoxication 


404  THE   WRECKER. 

rose  again  to  the  surface  ;  his  face  was  deformed,  his 
words  insane  with  fury;  his  pantomime  excessive  in 
itself,  was  distorted  by  an  access  of  St.  Vitus. 

"  You  will  perhaps  allow  me  to  inform  you  of  my  cold 
opinion,"  he  began,  apparently  self-possessed,  truly 
bursting  with  rage:  "when  I  am  a  glorified  saint,  I  shall 
see  you  howling  for  a  drop  of  water  and  exult  to  see 
you.  That  your  last  word  !  Take  it  in  your  face,  you  spy, 
you  false  friend,  you  fat  hypocrite !  I  defy,  I  defy  and  de- 
spise and  spit  upon  you!  I'm  on  the  trail,  his  trail  or 
yours,  I  smell  blood,  I'll  follow  it  on  my  hands  and 
knees,  I'll  starve  to  follow  it !  I'll  hunt  you  down,  hunt 
you,  hunt  you  down !  If  I  were  strong,  I'd  tear  your 
vitals  out,  here  in  this  room  —  tear  them  out  —  I'd  tear 
them  out !  Damn,  damn,  damn !  You  think  me  weak  ? 
I  can  bite,  bite  to  the  blood,  bite  you,  hurt  you,  disgrace 
you  ..." 

He  was  thus  incoherently  raging,  when  the  scene  was 
interrupted  by  the  arrival  of  the  landlord  and  inn  ser- 
vants in  various  degrees  of  deshabille,  and  to  them  I 
gave  my  temporary  lunatic  in  charge. 

"  Take  him  to  his  room,"  I  said,  "  he's  only  drunk." 

These  were  my  words ;  but  I  knew  better.  After  all  my 
study  of  Mr.  Bellairs,  one  discovery  had  been  reserved 
for  the  last  moment;  that  of  his  latent  and  essential 
madness. 


STALLBEIDGE-LE-CARTHEW.  405 

CHAPTER  XX. 

STALLBRIDGE-LE-CARTHEW. 

Long  before  I  was  awake,  the  shyster  had  disappeared, 
leaving  his  bill  unpaid.  I  did  not  need  to  inquire  where 
he  was  gone,  I  knew  too  well,  I  knew  there  was  nothing 
left  me  but  to  follow ;  and  about  ten  in  the  morning,  set 
forth  in  a  gig  for  Stallbridge-le-Carthew. 

The  road,  for  the  first  quarter  of  the  way,  deserts  the 
valley  of  the  river,  and  crosses  the  summit  of  a  chalk- 
down,  grazed  over  by  flocks  of  sheep  and  haunted  by 
innumerable  larks.  It  was  a  pleasant  but  a  vacant  scene, 
arousing  but  not  holding  the  attention ;  and  my  mind 
returned  to  the  violent  passage  of  the  night  before.  My 
thought  of  the  man  I  was  pursuing  had  been  greatly 
changed.  I  conceived  of  him,  somewhere  in  front  of 
me,  upon  his  dangerous  errand,  not  to  be  turned  aside, 
not  to  be  stopped,  by  either  fear  or  reason.  I  had  called 
him  a  ferret ;  I  conceived  him  now  as  a  mad  dog.  Me- 
thought  he  would  run,  not  walk ;  methought,  as  he  ran, 
that  he  would  bark  and  froth  at  the  lips  ;  methought,  if 
the  great  wall  of  China  were  to  rise  across  his  path,  he 
would  attack  it  with  his  nails. 

Presently  the  road  left  the  down,  returned  by  a  pre- 
cipitous descent  into  the  valley  of  the  Stall,  and  ran 
thenceforward  among  enclosed  fields  and  under  the  con- 


406  THE  WRECKER. 

tinuous  shade  of  trees.  I  was  told  we  had  now  entered 
on  the  Carthew  property.  By  and  by,  a  battlemented 
wall  appeared  on  the  left  hand,  and  a  little  after  I 
had  my  first  glimpse  of  the  mansion.  It  stood  in  a  hol- 
low of  a  bosky  park,  crowded  to  a  degree  that  surprised 
and  even  displeased  me,  with  huge  timber  and  dense 
shrubberies  of  laurel  and  rhododendron.  Even  from 
this  low  station  and  the  thronging  neighbourhood  of  the 
trees,  the  pile  rose  conspicuous  like  a  cathedral.  Be- 
hind, as  we  continued  to  skirt  the  park  wall,  I  began  to 
make  out  a  straggling  town  of  offices  which  became  con- 
joined to  the  rear  with  those  of  the  home  farm.  On  the 
left  was  an  ornamental  water  sailed  in  by  many  swans. 
On  the  right  extended  a  flower  garden,  laid  in  the  old 
manner,  and  at  this  season  of  the  year,  as  brilliant  as 
stained  glass.  The  front  of  the  house  presented  a  fagade 
of  more  than  sixty  windows,  surmounted  by  a  formal 
pediment  and  raised  upon  a  terrace.  A  wide  avenue, 
part  in  gravel,  part  in  turf,  and  bordered  by  triple  alleys, 
ran  to  the  great  double  gateways.  It  was  impossible  to 
look  without  surprise  on  a  place  that  had  been  prepared 
through  so  many  generations,  had  cost  so  many  tons  of 
minted  gold,  and  was  maintained  in  order  by  so  great  a 
company  of  emulous  servants.  And  yet  of  these  there 
was  no  sign  but  the  perfection  of  their  work.  The 
whole  domain  was  drawn  to  the  line  and  weeded  like 
the  front  plot  of  some  suburban  amateur ;  and  I  looked 
in  vain  for  any  belated  gardener,  and  listened  in  vain  for 


STALLBRIDGE-LE-CARTHEW.  407 

any  sounds  of  labour.  Some  lowing  of  cattle  and  much 
calling  of  birds  alone  disturbed  tlie  stillness,  and  even 
the  little  hamlet,  which  clustered  at  the  gates,  appeared 
to  hold  its  breath  in  awe  of  its  great  neighbour,  like  a 
troop  of  children  who  should  have  strayed  into  a  king's 
anteroom. 

The  CartJiew  Arms,  the  small  but  very  comfortable 
inn,  was  a  mere  appendage  and  outpost  of  the  family 
whose  name  it  bore.  Engraved  portraits  of  by-gone 
Carthews  adorned  the  walls  ;  Fielding  Carthew,  Recorder 
of  the  city  of  London ;  Major-General  John  Carthew  in 
uniform,  commanding  some  military  operations ;  the 
Right  Honourable  Bailley  Carthew,  Member  of  Parlia- 
ment for  Stallbridge,  standing  by  a  table  and  brandish- 
ing a  document;  Singleton  Carthew,  Esquire,  repre- 
sented in  the  foreground  of  a  herd  of  cattle  —  doubtless 
at  the  desire  of  his  tenantry  who  had  made  him  a  com- 
pliment of  this  work  of  art ;  and  the  Venerable  Archdea- 
con Carthew,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  A.M.,  laying  his  hand  on  the 
head  of  a  little  child  in  a  manner  highly  frigid  and 
ridiculous.  So  far  as  my  memory  serves  me,  there  were 
no  other  pictures  in  this  exclusive  hostelry ;  and  I  was 
not  surprised  to  learn  that  the  landlord  was  an  ex-butler, 
the  landlady  an  ex-lady's-maid,  from  the  great  house; 
and  that  the  bar-parlour  was  a  sort  of  perquisite  of 
former  servants. 

To  an  American,  the  sense  of  the  domination  of 
this  family  over  so  considerable  tract  of  earth  was  even 


408  THE   WRECKER. 

oppressive ;  and  as  I  considered  their  simple  annals, 
gathered  from  the  legends  of  the  engravings,  surprise 
began  to  mingle  with  my  disgust,  "  Mr.  Recorder " 
doubtless  occupies  an  honourable  post ;  but  I  thought 
that,  in  the  course  of  so  many  generations,  one  Cartliew 
might  have  clambered  higher.  The  soldier  had  stuck  at 
Major-General ;  the  churchmen  bloomed  unremarked  in 
an  archidiaconate ;  and  though  the  Right  Honourable 
Bailley  seemed  to  have  sneaked  into  the  privy  council, 
I  have  still  to  learn,  what  he  did  when  he  had  got  there. 
Such  vast  means,  so  long  a  start,  and  such  a  modest 
standard  of  achievement,  struck  in  me  a  strong  sense  of 
the  dulness  of  that  race. 

I  found  that  to  come  to  the  hamlet  and  not  visit  the 
Hall,  would  be  regarded  as  a  slight.  To  feed  the  swans, 
to  see  the  peacocks  and  the  Raphaels  —  for  these  com- 
monplace people  actually  possessed  two  Raphaels  —  to 
risk  life  and  limb  among  a  famotis  breed  of  cattle  called 
the  Carthew  Chill inghams,  and  to  do  homage  to  the  sire 
(still  living)  of  Donibristle,  a  renowned  winner  of  the 
oaks  :  these,  it  seemed,  were  the  inevitable  stations  of 
the  pilgrimage.  I  was  not  so  foolish  as  to  resist,  for  I 
might  have  need  before  I  was  done  of  general  good-will; 
and  two  pieces  of  news  fell  in  which  changed  my  resigna- 
tion to  alacrity.  It  appeared  in  the  first  place,  that  Mr. 
Norris  was  from  home  "  travelling  "  ;  in  the  second,  that 
a  visitor  had  been  before  me  and  already  made  the 
tour   of    the   Carthew   curiosities.     I   thought   I   knew 


STALLBRIDGE-LE-CARTHEW.  409 

who  this  must  be ;  I  was  anxious  to  learn  what  he  had 
done  and  seen ;  and  fortune  so  far  favoured  me  that  the 
under-gardener  singled  out  to  be  my  guide  had  already 
performed  the  same  function  for  my  predecessor. 

"Yes,  sir,"  he  said,  "an  American  gentleman  right 
enough.  At  least,  I  don't  think  he  was  quite  a  gentle- 
man, but  a  very  civil  person." 

The  person,  it  seems,  had  been  civil  enough  to  be 
delighted  with  the  Carthew  Chillinghams,  to  perform 
the  whole  pilgrimage  with  rising  admiration,  and  to 
have  almost  prostrated  himself  before  the  shrine  of 
Donibristle's  sire. 

"He  told  me,  sir,"  continued  the  gratified  under- 
gardener,  "  that  he  had  often  read  of  '  the  stately  'omes 
of  England,'  but  ours  was  the  first  he  had  the  chance 
to  see.  When  he  came  to  the  'ead  of  the  long  alley,  he 
fetched  his  breath.  '  This  is  indeed  a  lordly  domain ! ' 
he  cries.  And  it  was  natural  he  should  be  interested  in 
the  place,  for  it  seems  Mr.  Carthew  had  been  kind  to 
him  in  the  States.  In  fact,  he  seemed  a  grateful  kind 
of  person,  and  wonderful  taken  up  with  flowers." 

I  heard  this  story  with  amazement.  The  phrases 
quoted  told  their  own  tale ;  they  were  plainly  from  the 
shyster's  mint.  A  few  hours  back  I  had  seen  him  a 
mere  bedlamite  and  fit  for  a  strait- waistcoat ;  he  was 
penniless  in  a  strange  country;  it  was  highly  probable 
he  had  gone  without  breakfast ;  the  absence  of  Norris 
must  have  been  a  crushing  blow ;  the  man  (by  all  reason) 


410  THE   WRECKER. 

should  liave  been  despairing.  And  now  I  heard  of  him, 
clothed  and  in  his  right  mind,  deliberate,  insinuating, 
admiring  vistas,  smelling  flowers,  and  talking  like  a 
book.  The  strength  of  character  implied  amazed  and 
daunted  me. 

"This  is  curious,"  I  said  to  the  under-gardener.  "I 
have  had  the  pleasure  of  some  acquaintance  with  Mr. 
Carthew  myself;  and  I  believe  none  of  our  western 
friends  ever  were  in  England.  Who  can  this  person  be  ? 
He  couldn't  —  no,  that's  impossible,  he  could  never  have 
had  the  impudence.     His  name  was  not  Bellairs  ?  " 

"  I  didn't  'ear  the  name,  sir.  Do  you  know  anything 
against  him  ?  "  cried  my  guide. 

"Well,"  said  I,  "he  is  certainly  not  the  person  Car- 
thew would  like  to  have  here  in  his  absence." 

"  Good  gracious  me  ! "  exclaimed  the  gardener.  "  He 
was  so  pleasant  spoken,  too;  I  thought  he  was  some 
form  of  a  schoolmaster.  Perhaps,  sir,  you  wouldn't 
mind  going  right  up  to  Mr.  Denman  ?  I  recommended 
him  to  Mr.  Denman,  when  he  had  done  the  grounds. 
Mr.  Denman  is  our  butler,  sir,"  he  added. 

The  proposal  was  welcome,  particularly  as  affording 
me  a  graceful  retreat  from  the  neighbourhood  of  the 
Carthew  Chillinghams ;  and,  giving  up  our  projected 
circuit,  we  took  a  short  cut  through  the  shrubbery  and 
across  the  bowling  green  to  the  back  quarters  of  the 
Hall. 

The  bowling  green  was  surrounded  by  a  great  hedge  of 


STALLBRIDGE-LE-CAllTHEW.  411 

yew,  and  entered  by  an  archway  in  the  quick.  As  we 
were  issuing  from  this  passage,  my  conductor  arrested 
me. 

"  The  Honourable  Lady  Ann  Carthew,"  he  said,  in  an 
august  whisper.  And  looking  over  his  shoulder,  I  was 
aware  of  an  old  lady  with  a  stick,  hobbling  somewhat 
briskly  along  the  garden  path.  She  must  have  been 
extremely  handsome  in  her  youth ;  and  even  the  limp 
with  which  she  walked  could  not  deprive  her  of  an  unu- 
sual and  almost  menacing  dignity  of  bearing.  Melan- 
choly was  impressed  besides  on  every  feature,  and  her 
eyes,  as  she  looked  straight  before  her,  seemed  to  con- 
template misfortune. 

"  She  seems  sad,"  said  I,  when  she  had  hobbled  past 
and  we  had  resumed  our  walk. 

"  She  enjoy  rather  poor  spirits,  sir, "  responded  the 
uuder-gardener.  "Mr.  Carthew  —  the  old  gentleman,  I 
mean  —  died  less  than  a  year  ago ;  Lord  Tillibody,  her 
ladyship's  brother,  two  months  after ;  and  then  there 
was  the  sad  business  about  the  young  gentleman.  Killed 
in  the  'unting-field,  sir;  and  her  ladyship's  favourite. 
The  present  Mr.  iSTorris  has  never  been  so  equally." 

"So  I  have  understood,"  said  I,  persistently,  and  (I 
think)  gracefully  pursuing  my  inquiries  and  fortifying 
my  position  as  a  family  friend.  "  Dear,  dear,  how  sad  ! 
And  has  this  change  —  poor  Carthew's  return,  and  all 
• —  has  this  not  mended  matters  ?  " 

"  Well,  no,  sir,  not  a  sign  of  it,"  was  the  reply. 
"  Worse,  we  think,  than  ever." 


412  THE    WRECKER. 

"  Dear,  clear  ! "  said  I,  again. 

"  When  Mr.  ISTorris  arrived,  she  did  seem  glad  to  see 
him,"  he  pursued ;  "  and  we  were  all  pleased,  I'm  sure  ; 
for  no  one  knows  the  young  gentleman  but  what  likes 
him.  Ah,  sir,  it  didn't  last  long !  That  very  night  they 
had  a  talk,  and  fell  out  or  something ;  her  ladyship  took 
on  most  painful ;  it  was  like  old  days,  but  worse.  And 
the  next  morning  Mr.  Norris  was  off  again  upon  his 
travels.  '  Denman,'  he  said  to  Mr.  Denman,  '  Denman, 
I'll  never  come  back,'  he  said,  and  shook  him  by  the 
'and.  I  wouldn't  be  saying  all  this  to  a  stranger,  sir," 
added  my  informant,  overcome  with  a  sudden  fear  lest 
he  had  gone  too  far. 

He  had  indeed  told  me  much,  and  much  that  was 
unsuspected  by  himself.  On  that  stormy  night  of  his 
return,  Carthew  had  told  his  story  ;  the  old  lady  had 
more  upon  her  mind  than  mere  bereavements  ;  and 
among  the  mental  pictures  on  which  she  looked,  as  she 
walked  staring  down  the  path,  was  one  of  Midway 
Island  and  the  Flying  Scud. 

Mr.  Denman  heard  my  inquiries  with  discomposure, 
but  informed  me  the  shyster  was  already  gone. 

"  Gone  ?  "  cried  I.  "  Then  what  can  he  have  come 
for  ?  One  thing  I  can  tell  you ;  it  was  not  to  see  the 
house." 

"  I  don't  see  it  could  have  been  anything  else,"  replied 
the  butler. 

"  You  may  depend   upon  it  it  was,"   said  I.     "  And 


STALLBRIDGE-LE-CARTHEW.  413 

whatever  it  was,  lie  has  got  it.  By  the  way,  where  is 
Mr.  Carthew  at  present  ?  I  was  sorry  to  find  he  was 
from  home." 

"  He  is  engaged  in  travelling,  sir,"  replied  the  butler, 
dryly. 

"Ah,  bravo!"  cried  I.  "I  laid  a  trap  for  you  there, 
Mr.  Denman.  Now  I  need  not  ask  you ;  I  am  sure  you 
did  not  tell  this  prying  stranger."       ' 

"To  be  sure  not,  sir,"  said  the  butler. 

I  went  through  the  form  of  "shaking  him  by  the 
'and "  —  like  Mr.  Norris  —  not,  however,  with  genuine 
enthusiasm.  For  I  had  failed  ingloriously  to  get  the 
address  for  myself;  and  I  felt  a  sure  conviction  that 
Bellairs  had  done  better,  or  he  had  still  been  here  and 
still  cultivating  Mr.  Denman. 

I  had  escaped  the  grounds  and  the  cattle ;  I  could  not 
escape  the  house.  A  lady  with  silver  hair,  a  slender 
silver  voice,  and  a  stream  of  insignificant  information 
not  to  be  diverted,  led  me  through  the  picture  gallery, 
the  music-room,  the  great  dining-room,  the  long  drawing- 
room,  the  Indian  room,  the  theatre,  and  every  cornei 
(as  I  thought)  of  that  interminable  mansion.  There 
was  but  one  place  reserved ;  the  garden-room,  whither 
Lady  Ann  had  now  retired.  I  paused  a  moment  on  the 
outside  of  the  door,  and  smiled  to  myself.  The  situa- 
tion was  indeed  strange,  and  these  thin  boards  divided 
the  secret  of  the  Flying  Scud. 

All  the  while,  as  I  went  to  and  fro,  I  was  considering 


414  THE   WKECKER. 

the  visit  and  departure  of  Bellairs.  That  he  had  got 
the  address,  I  was  quite  certain :  that  he  had  not  got  it 
by  direct  questioning,  I  was  convinced ;  some  ingenuity, 
some  lucky  accident,  had  served  him.  A  similar  chance, 
an  equal  ingenuity,  was  required ;  or  I  was  left  helpless, 
tlie  ferret  must  run  down  his  prey,  the  great  oaks  fall, 
the  Raphaels  be  scattered,  the  house  let  to  some  stock- 
broker suddenly  made  rich,  and  the  name  which  now 
filled  the  mouths  of  five  or  six  parishes  dwindle  to 
a  memory.  Strange  that  such  great  matters,  so  old  a 
mansion,  a  family  so  ancient  and  so  dull,  should  come 
to  depend  for  perpetuity  upon  the  intelligence,  the  dis- 
cretion, and  the  cunning  of  a  Latin-Quarter  student ! 
What  Bellairs  had  done,  I  must  do  likewise.  Chance  or 
ingenuity,  ingenuity  or  chance  —  so  I  continued  to  ring 
the  changes  as  I  walked  away  down  the  avenue,  casting 
back  occasional  glances  at  the  red  brick  fagade  and  the 
twinkling  windows  of  the  house.  How  was  I  to  com- 
mand chance  ?  where  was  I  to  find  the  ingenuity  ? 

These  reflections  brought  me  to  the  door  of  the  inn. 
And  here,  pursuant  to  my  policy  of  keeping  well  with 
all  men,  I  immediately  smoothed  my  brow,  and  accepted 
(being  the  only  guest  in  the  house)  an  invitation  to  dine 
with  the  family  in  tlie  bar-parlour.  I  sat  down  accord- 
ingly with  Mr.  Higgs  the  ex-butler,  Mrs.  Higgs  the  ex- 
lady's-maid,  and  Miss  Agnes  Higgs,  their  frowsy-headed 
little  girl,  the  least  promising  and  (as  the  event  showed) 
the  most  useful  of  the  lot.     The  talk  ran  endlessly  on  the 


LADY  WITH  SILVER  HAIR,  A  SLENDER  SILVER  VOICE,  AND  A  STREAM  OF 
INSIGNIFICANT  INFORMATION  NOT  TO  BE  DIVERTED,  LED  ME  THROUGH  THE 
PICTURE  GALLERY. 


STALLBRIDGE-LE-CARTHEW.  415 

great  house  and  the  great  family ;  the  roast  beef,  the 
Yorkshire  pudding,  the  jam-roll,  and  the  cheddar  cheese 
came  and  went,  and  still  the  stream  flowed  on  ;  near  four 
generations  of  Carthews  were  touched  upon  without 
eliciting  one  point  of  interest;  and  we  had  killed  Mr. 
Henry  in  "the  'unting  field,"  with  a  vast  elaboration 
of  painful  circumstance,  and  buried  him  in  the  midst  of 
a  whole  sorrowing  county,  before  I  could  so  much  as 
manage  to  bring  upon  the  stage  my  intimate  friend,  ]Mr. 
Norris.  At  the  name,  the  ex-butler  grew  diplomatic, 
and  the  ex-lady's-maid  tender.  He  was  the  only  person 
of  the  whole  featureless  series  who  seemed  to  have  accom- 
plished anything  worth  mention ;  and  his  achievements, 
poor  dog,  seemed  to  have  been  confined  to  going  to  the  devil 
and  leaving  some  regrets.  He  had  been  the  image  of  the 
Eight  Honourable  Bailley,  one  of  the  lights  of  that  dim 
house,  and  a  career  of  distinction  had  been  predicted  of 
him  in  consequence  almost  from  the  cradle.  But  before 
he  was  out  of  long  clothes,  the  cloven  foot  began  to 
show ;  he  proved  to  be  no  Carthew,  developed  a  taste  for 
low  pleasures  and  bad  company,  went  birdsnesting  with 
a  stable-boy  before  he  was  eleven,  and  when  he  was  near 
twenty,  and  might  have  been  expected  to  display  at 
least  some  rudiments  of  the  family  gravity,  rambled  the 
county  over  with  a  knapsack,  making  sketches  and  keep- 
ing company  in  wayside  inns.  He  had  no  pride  about 
him,  I  was  told ;  he  would  sit  down  with  any  man ;  and 
it  was  somewhat  woundingly  implied  that  I  was  indebted 


416  THE   WRECKER. 

to  this  peculiarity  for  my  own  acquaintance  with  the  hero. 
Unhappily,  Mr.  Norris  was  not  only  eccentric,  he  was  fast. 
His  debts  were  still  remembered  at  the  University  ;  still 
more,  it  appeared,  the  highly  humorous  circumstances 
attending  his  expulsion.  ''He  was  always  fond  of  his 
jest,"  commented  Mrs.  Higgs. 

*'  That  he  were !  "  observed  her  lord. 

But  it  was  after  he  went  into  the  diplomatic  service 
that  the  real  trouble  began. 

"It  seems,  sir,  that  he  went  the  pace  extraordinary," 
said  the  ex-butler,  with  a  solemn  gusto. 

"His  debts  were  somethink  awful,"  said  the  lady's-maid. 
"And  as  nice  a  young  gentleman  all  the  time  as  you 
would  wish  to  see  !  " 

"  When  word  came  to  Mr.  Carthew's  ears,  the  turn  up 
was  'orrible,"  continued  Mr.  Higgs.  "  I  remember  it  as 
if  it  was  yesterday.  The  bell  was  rung  after  her  la'ship 
was  gone,  which  I  answered  it  myself,  supposing  it  were 
the  coffee.  There  was  Mr.  Carthew  on  his  feet.  '  'Iggs,' 
he  says,  pointing  with  his  stick,  for  he  had  a  turn  of  the 
gout,  '  order  the  dog-cart  instantly  for  this  son  of  mine 
which  has  disgraced  hisself.'  Mr.  Norris  say  nothink :  he 
sit  there  with  his  'ead  down,  making  belief  to  be  looking 
at  a  walnut.  You  might  have  bowled  me  over  with  a 
straw,"  said  Mr.  Higgs. 

"  Had  he  done  anything  very  bad  ?  "  I  asked. 

"  Kot  he,  Mr.  Dodsley ! "  cried  the  lady  —  it  was  so 
she  had  conceived  my  name.     "  He  never  did  anythink 


STALLBEIDGE-LE-CAUTIIE^Y.  417 

to  all  really  wrong  in  his  poor  life.  The  'ole  affair  was 
a  disgrace.     It  was  all  rank  favouritising." 

"  Mrs.  'Iggs  !  Mrs.  'Iggs  !  "  cried  the  butler  warningly, 

"  Well,  what  do  I  care  ?  "  retorted  the  lady,  shaking 
her  ringlets.  "  You  know  it  was  yourself,  Mr.  'Iggs, 
and  so  did  every  member  of  the  staff." 

While  I  was  getting  these  facts  and  opinions,  I  by  no 
means  neglected  the  child.  She  was  not  attractive ;  but 
fortunately  she  had  reached  the  corrupt  age  of  seven, 
when  half  a  crown  appears  about  as  large  as  a  saucer  and 
is  fully  as  rare  as  the  dodo.  For  a  shilling  down,  six- 
pence in  her  money  box,  and  an  American  gold  dollar 
which  I  happened  to  find  in  my  pocket,  I  bought  the 
creature  soul  and  body.  She  declared  her  intention  to 
accompany  me  to  the  ends  of  the  earth ;  and  had  to  be 
chidden  by  her  sire  for  drawing  comparisons  between 
myself  and  her  Uncle  William,  highly  damaging  to  the 
latter. 

Dinner  was  scarce  done,  the  cloth  was  not  j^et  removed, 
when  Miss  Agues  must  needs  climb  into  my  laj3  with 
her  stamp  album,  a  relic  of  the  generosity  of  Uncle 
William.  There  are  few  things  I  despise  more  than  old 
stamps,  unless  perhaps  it  be  crests ;  for  cattle  (from  the 
Carthew  Chilliughams  down  to  the  old  gate-keeper's  milk 
cow  in  the  lane)  contempt  is  far  from  being  my  first 
sentiment.  But  it  seemed  I  was  doomed  to  pass  that 
day  in  viewing  curiosities,  and  smothering  a  3'awn,  I 
devoted  myself  once  more  to  tread  the  well-known  round. 


418  THE   WRECKER. 

I  fancy  Uncle  William  must  have  begun  the  collection 
himself  and  tired  of  it,  for  the  book  (to  ray  surprise)  was 
quite  respectably  filled.  There  were  the  varying  shades 
of  the  English  penny,  Russians  with  the  coloured  heart, 
old  undecipherable  Thurn-und-Taxis,  obsolete  triangular 
Cape  of  Good  Hopes,  Swan  Rivers  with  the  Swan,  and 
Guianas  with  the  sailing  ship.  Upon  all  these  I  looked 
with  the  eyes  of  a  fish  and  the  spirit  of  a  sheep ;  I 
think  indeed  I  was  at  times  asleep ;  and  it  was  probably 
in  one  of  these  moments  that  I  capsized  the  album,  and 
there  fell  from  the  end  of  it,  upon  the  floor,  a  consider- 
able number  of  what  I  believe  to  be  called  "  exchanges." 

Here,  against  all  probability,  my  chance  had  come  to 
me ;  for  as  I  gallantly  picked  them  up,  I  was  struck  with 
the  disproportionate  amount  of  five-sous  French  stamps. 
Some  one,  I  reasoned,  must  write  very  regularly  from 
France  to  the  neighbourhood  of  Stallbridge-le-Carthew. 
Could  it  be  ISTorris  ?  On  one  stamp  I  made  out  an  ini- 
tial C ;  upon  a  second  I  got  as  far  as  C  H ;  beyond 
which  point,  the  postmark  used  was  in  every  instance 
undecipherable.  C  H,  when  you  consider  that  about 
a  quarter  of  the  towns  in  France  begin  with  "  chateau," 
was  an  •  insufficient  clue ;  and  I  promptly  annexed  the 
plainest  of  the  collection  in  order  to  consult  the  post- 
office. 

The  wretched  infant  took  me  in  the  fact.  "  Naughty 
man,  to  'teal  my  'tamp  ! "  she  cried ;  and  when  I  would 
have  brazened  it  off  with  a  denial,  recovered  and  dis- 
played the  stolen  article. 


STALLBRIDGE-LE-CARTHEW.  419 

My  position  was  now  highly  false ;  and  I  believe  it 
was  in  mere  pity  that  Mrs.  Higgs  came  to  my  rescue 
with  a  welcome  proposition.  If  the  gentleman  was 
really  interested  in  stamps,  she  said,  probably  suppos- 
ing me  a  monomaniac  on  the  point,  he  should  see  IMr. 
Denman's  album.  Mr.  Denman  had  been  collecting  forty 
years,  and  his  collection  was  said  to  be  worth  a  mint  of 
money.  "Agnes,"  she  went  on,  "if  you  were  a  kind 
little  girl,  you  would  run  over  to  the  'All,  tell  Mr.  Den- 
man there's  a  connaisseer  in  the  'ouse,  and  ask  him  if 
one  of  the  young  gentlemen  might  bring  the  album 
down." 

"  I  should  like  to  see  his  exchanges  too,"  I  cried,  ris- 
ing to  the  occasion.  "I  may  have  some  of  mine  in 
my  pocket-book  and  we  might  trade." 

Half  an  hour  later,  Mr.  Denman  arrived  himself  with 
a  most  unconscionable  volume  under  his  arm.  "Ah, 
sir,"  he  cried,  "  when  I  'eard  you  was  a  collector,  I 
dropped  all.  It's  a  saying  of  mine,  Mr.  Dodsley,  that 
collecting  stamps  makes  all  collectors  kin.  It's  a  bond, 
sir ;  it  creates  a  bond." 

Upon  the  truth  of  this,  I  cannot  say ;  but  there  is  no 
doubt  that  the  attempt  to  pass  yourself  off  for  a  col- 
lector falsely  creates  a  precarious  situation. 

"Ah,  here's  the  second  issue!"  I  would  say,  after 
consulting  the  legend  at  the  side.  "  The  pink  —  no,  I 
mean  the  mauve  —  yes,  that's  the  beauty  of  this  lot. 
Though  of  course,  as  you  say,"  I  would  hasten  to  add, 
"  this  yellow  on  the  thin  paper  is  more  rare." 


420  THE   WRECKER. 

Indeed  I  must  certainly  have  been  detected,  had  I 
not  plied  Mr.  Denman  in  self-defence  with  his  favourite 
liquor  —  a  port  so  excellent  that  it  could  never  have 
ripened  in  the  cellar  of  the  Carthew  Arms,  but  must 
have  been  transported,  under  cloud  of  night,  from  the 
neighbouring  vaults  of  the  great  house.  At  each  threat 
of  exposure,  and  in  particular  whenever  I  was  directly 
challenged  for  an  opinion,  I  made  haste  to  fill  the 
butler's  glass,  and  by  the  time  we  had  got  to  the  ex- 
changes, he  was  in  a  condition  in  which  no  stamp  collector 
need  be  seriously  feared,  God  forbid  I  should  hint  that 
he  was  drunk ;  he  seemed  incapable  of  the  necessary 
liveliness ;  but  the  man's  eyes  were  set,  and  so  long  as 
he  was  suffered  to  talk  without  interruption,  he  seemed 
careless  of  my  heeding  him. 

In  Mr.  Denman's  exchanges,  as  in  those  of  little 
Agnes,  the  same  peculiarity  was  to  be  remarked,  an  undue 
preponderance  of  that  despicably  common  stamp,  the 
French  twenty-five  centimes.  And  here  joining  them 
in  stealthy  review,  I  found  the  C  and  the  CH;  then 
something  of  an  A  just  following;  and  then  a  terminal 
Y.  Here  was  almost  the  whole  name  spelled  out  to  me ; 
it  seemed  familiar,  too  ;  and  yet  for  some  time  I  could 
not  bridge  the  imperfection.  Then  I  came  upon  another 
stamp,  in  which  an  L  was  legible  before  the  Y,  and  in  a 
moment  the  word  leaped  up  complete.  Chailly,  that 
was  the  name ;  Chailly-en-Biere,  the  post  town  of  Bar- 
bizon  —  ah,   there  was  the  very  place  for  any  man  to 


FACE  TO   FACE.  421 

hide  himself  —  there  was  the  very  place  for  Mr.  ISTorris, 
who  had  rambled  over  England  making  sketches — the 
very  place  for  Goddedaal,  who  had  left  a  palette-knife  on 
board  the  Flying  Scud.  Singular,  indeed,  that  while  I 
was  drifting  over  England  witli  the  shyster,  the  man  we 
were  in  quest  of  awaited  me  at  my  own  ultimate  desti- 
nation. 

Whether  Mr.  Den  man  had  shown  his  album  to  Bel- 
lairs,  wh(  ther,  indeed,  Bellairs  could  have  caught  (as  I 
did)  this  hint  from  an  obliterated  postmark,  I  shall 
never  know,  and  it  mattered  not.  We  were  equal  now ; 
my  task  at  Stallbridge-le-Carthew  was  accomplished  ;  my 
interest  in  postage-stamps  died  shamelessly  away ;  the 
astonished  Denman  was  bowed  out ;  and  ordering  the 
horse  to  be  put  in,  I  jslunged  into  the  study  of  the  time- 
table. 


CHAPTER  XXI. 

FACE   TO    FACE. 


I  fell  from  the  skies  on  Barbizon  about  two  o'clock  of  a 
September  afternoon.  It  is  the  dead  hour  of  the  day ; 
all  the  workers  have  gone  painting,  all  the  idlers  stroll- 
ing, in  the  forest  or  the  plain ;  the  winding  causewayed 
street  is  solitary,  and  the  inn  deserted.  I  was  the  more 
pleased  to  find  one  of  my  old  companions  in  the  dining- 


422  THE   WRECKER. 

room  ;  his  town  clothes  marked  him  for  a  man  in  the  act 
of  departure;  and  indeed  his  portmanteau  lay  beside 
him  on  the  floor. 

''  Why,  Stennis,"  I  cried,  "  you're  the  last  man  I  ex- 
pected to  find  here." 

"You  won't  find  me  here  long,"  he  replied.  ^  King 
Pandion  he  is  dead;  all  his  friends  are  lapped  in  lead. 
For  men  of  our  antiquity,  the  poor  old  shop  is  played 
out." 

"/  have  had  playmates,  I  have  had  companions,^^  I 
quoted  in  return.  We  were  both  moved,  I  think,  to 
meet  again  in  this  scene  of  our  old  pleasure  parties  so 
unexpectedly,  after  so  long  an  interval,  and  both  already 
so  much  altered. 

"  That  is  the  sentiment,"  he  replied.  "  All,  all  are 
gone,  the  old  faniiliar  faces.  I  have  been  here  a  week, 
and  the  only  living  creature  who  seemed  to  recollect  me 
was  the  Pharaon.  Bar  the  Sirons,  of  course,  and  the 
perennial  Bodmer." 

"  Is  there  no  survivor  ?  "  I  inquired. 

''  Of  our  geological  epoch  ?  not  one,"  he  replied. 
"  This  is  the  city  of  Petra  in  Edom." 

"And  what  sort  of  Bedouins  encamp  among  the 
ruins  ?  "  I  asked. 

"  Youth,  Dodd,  youth  ;  blooming,  conscious  youth," 
he  returned.  "  Such  a  gang,  such  reptiles  !  to  think  we 
were  like  that !  I  wonder  Siron  didn't  sweep  us  from  his 
premises." 


FACE  TO  FACE.  423 

"  Perhaps  we  weren't  so  bad,"  I  suggested. 

"  Don't  let  me  depress  you,"  said  he.  "  We  were  both 
Anglo-Saxons,  anyway,  and  the  only  redeeming  feature 
to-day  is  another." 

The  thought  of  my  quest,  a  moment  driven  out  by 
this  rencounter,  revived  in  my  mind.  "  Who  is  he  ?  " 
I  cried.     "  Tell  me  about  him." 

"  What,  the  Eedeeming  Feature  ?  "  said  he.  "  Well, 
he's  a  very  pleasing  creature,  rather  dim,  and  dull,  and 
genteel,  but  really  pleasing.  He  is  very  British,  though, 
the  artless  Briton  !  Perhaps  you'll  find  him  too  much 
so  for  the  transatlantic  nerves.  Come  to  think  of  it,  on 
the  other  hand,  you  ought  to  get  on  famously.  He  is  an 
admirer  of  your  great  republic  in  one  of  its  (excuse  me) 
shoddiest  features ;  he  takes  in  and  sedulously  reads  a 
lot  of  American  papers.     I  warned  you  he  was  artless." 

"  What  papers  are  they  ?  "  cried  I. 

"  San  Francisco  papers,"  said  he.  "  He  gets  a  bale 
of  them  about  twice  a  week,  and  studies  them  like  the 
Bible.  That's  one  of  his  weaknesses ;  another  is  to  be 
incalculably  rich.  He  has  taken  Masson's  old  studio 
—  you  remember  ?  —  at  the  corner  of  the  road  ;  he  has 
furnished  it  regardless  of  expense,  and  lives  there  sur- 
rounded with  vins  Jiiis  and  works  of  art.  When  the 
3'outh  of  to-day  goes  up  to  the  Caverne  des  Brigands 
to  make  punch  —  they  do  all  that  we  did,  like  some 
nauseous  form  of  ape  (I  never  appreciated  before  what 
a  creature  of  tradition  mankind  is)  —  this  Madden  f ul- 


424  THE   WRECKER. 

lows  witli  a  basket  of  champagne.  I  told  them  he  was 
wrong,  and  the  punch  tasted  better ;  but  he  thought  the 
boys  liked  the  style  of  the  thing,  and  I  suppose  they  do. 
He  is  a  very  good-natured  soul,  and  very  melancholy, 
and  rather  a  helpless.  0,  and  he  has  a  third  weak- 
ness which  I  came  near  forgetting.  He  paints.  He  has 
never  been  taught,  and  he's  past  thirty,  and  he  paints." 

''  How  ?  "  I  asked. 

"  Rather  well,  I  think,"  was  the  reply.  "  That's  the 
annoying  part  of  it.  See  for  yourself.  That  panel  is 
his." 

I  stepped  toward  the  window.  It  was  the  old 
familiar  room,  with  the  tables  set  like  a  Greek  P,  and 
the  sideboard,  and  the  aphasiac  piano,  and  the  panels 
on  the  wall.  There  were  Romeo  and  Juliet,  Antwerp 
from  the  river,  Enfield's  ships  among  the  ice,  and  the 
huge  huntsman  winding  a  huge  horn ;  mingled  with 
them  a  few  new  ones,  the  thin  crop  of  a  succeeding 
generation,  not  better  and  not  worse.  It  was  to  one  of 
these  I  was  directed;  a  thing  coarsely  and  wittily 
handled,  mostly  with  the  palette-knife,  the  colour  in 
some  parts  excellent,  the  canvas  in  others  loaded  with 
mere  clay.  But  it  was  the  scene,  and  not  the  art  or 
want  of  it,  that  riveted  my  notice.  The  foreground 
was  of  sand  and  scrub  and  wreckwood;  in  the  middle 
distance  the  many-hued  and  smooth  expanse  of  a  lagoon, 
enclosed  by  a  wall  of  breakers ;  beyond,  a  blue  strip  of 
ocean.     The   sky  was  cloudless,   and  I  could  hear  the 


FACE   TO    FACE.  425 

surf  break.  For  the  place  was  Midway  Island;  the 
point  of  view  the  very  spot  at  which  I  had  landed  with 
the  captain  for  the  first  time,  and  from  which  I  had 
re-embarked  the  day  before  we  sailed.  I  had  already 
been  gazing  for  some  seconds,  before  my  attention  was 
arrested  by  a  blur  on  the  sea-line ;  and  stooping  to  look, 
I  recognised  the  smoke  of  a  steamer. 

"  Yes,"  said  I,  turning  toward  Stennis,  "  it  has  merit. 
What  is  it  ?  " 

"  A  fancy  piece,"  he  returned.  "  That's  what  pleased 
me.  So  few  of  the  fellows  in  our  time  had  the  imagina- 
tion of  a  garden  snail." 

"  Madden,  you  say  his  name  is  ?  "  I  pursued. 

"  Madden,"  he  repeated. 

"  Has  he  travelled  much  ?  "  I  inquired. 

"I  haven't  an  idea.  He  is  one  of  the  least  autobio- 
graphical of  men.  He  sits,  and  smokes,  and  giggles, 
and  sometimes  he  makes  small  jests ;  but  his  contribu- 
tions to  the  art  of  pleasing  are  generally  confined  to  look- 
ing like  a  gentleman  and  being  one.  No,"  added  Stennis, 
"he'll  never  suit  you,  Dodd ;  you  like  more  head  on  your 
liquor.     You'll  find  him  as  dull  as  ditch  water." 

"Has  he  big  blonde  side-whiskers  like  tusks  ?  "  I  asked, 
mindful  of  the  photograph  of  Goddedaal. 

"  Certainly  not :  why  should  he  ?  "  was  the  reply. 

"  Does  he  write  many  letters  ?  "  I  continued. 

"God  knows,"  says  Stennis.  "What  is  wrong  with 
you  ?     I  never  saw  you  taken  this  Avay  before." 


426  THE    WKECKER. 

"The  fact  is,  I  think  I  know  the  man,"  said  I.  "I 
think  I'm  looking  for  him.  I  rather  think  he  is  my 
long-lost  brother." 

"  Not  twins,  anyway,"  returned  Stennis. 

And  about  the  same  time,  a  carriage  driving  up  to  the 
inn,  he  took  his  departure. 

I  walked  till  dinner-time  in  the  plain,  keeping  to 
the  fields;  for  I  instinctively  shunned  observation,  and 
was  racked  by  many  incongruous  and  impatient  feelings. 
Here  was  a  man  whose  voice  I  had  once  heard,  whose 
doings  had  filled  so  many  days  of  my  life  with  interest 
and  distress,  whom  I  had  lain  awake  to  dream  of  like  a 
lover;  and  now  his  hand  was  on  the  door;  now  we  were 
to  meet ;  now  I  was  to  learn  at  last  the  mystery  of  the 
substituted  crew.  The  sun  went  down  over  the  plain  of 
the  Angelus,  and  as  the  hour  approached,  my  courage 
lessened.  I  let  the  laggard  peasants  pass  me  on  the 
homeward  way.  The  lamps  were  lit,  the  soup  was 
served,  the  company  were  all  at  table,  and  the  room 
sounded  already  with  multitudinous  talk  before  I  entered. 
I  took  my  place  and  found  I  was  opposite  to  Madden. 
Over  six  feet  high  and  well  set  up,  the  hair  dark  and 
streaked  with  silver,  the  eyes  dark  and  kindly,  the  mouth 
very  good-natured,  the  teeth  admirable ;  linen  and  hands 
exquisite ;  English  clothes,  an  English  voice,  an  English 
bearing :  the  man  stood  out  conspicuous  from  the  com- 
pany. Yet  he  had  made  himself  at  home,  and  seemed  to 
enjoy  a  certain  quiet  popularity  among  the  noisy  boys  of 


FACE   TO    FACE.  427 

the  table  d'hdte.  He  had  an  odd,  silver  giggle  of  a 
laugh,  that  sounded  nervous  even  when  he  was  really 
amused,  and  accorded  ill  with  his  big  stature  and  manly, 
melancholy  face.  This  laugh  fell  in  continually  all 
through  dinner  like  the  note  of  the  triangle  in  a  piece  of 
modern  French  music ;  and  he  had  at  times  a  kind  of 
pleasantry,  rather  of  manner  than  of  words,  with  which 
he  started  or  maintained  the  merriment.  He  took  his 
share  in  these  diversions,  not  so  much  like  a  man  in  high 
spirits,  but  like  one  of  an  approved  good  nature,  habitu- 
ally self-forgetful,  accustomed  to  please  and  to  follow 
others.  I  have  remarked  in  old  soldiers  much  the  same 
smiling  sadness  and  sociable  self-effacement. 

I  feared  to  look  at  him,  lest  my  glances  should  betray 
my  deep  excitement,  and  chance  served  me  so  well  that 
the  soup  was  scarce  removed  before  we  were  naturally 
introduced.  My  first  sip  of  Chateau  Siron,  a  vintage 
from  which  I  had  been  long  estranged,  startled  me  into 
speech. 

"  0,  this'll  never  do  ! "  I  cried,  in  English. 

"  Dreadful  stuff,  isn't  it  ?  "  said  Madden,  in  the  same 
language.  "Do  let  me  ask  you  to  share  my  bottle. 
They  call  it  Chambertin,  which  it  isn't;  but  it's  fairly 
palatable,  and  there's  nothing  in  this  house  that  a  man 
can  drink  at  all." 

I  accepted ;  anything  would  do  that  paved  the  way  to 
better  knowledge. 

"  Your  name  is  Madden,  I  think,"  said  I.  ''  My  old 
friend  Stennis  told  me  about  you  when  I  came." 


428  THE   WKECKEK. 

"  Yes  :  I  am  sorry  he  went ;  I  feel  such  a  Grandfather 
William,  alone  among  all  these  lads,"  he  replied. 

"  My  name  is  Dodd,"  I  resumed. 

"  Yes,"  said  he,  "  so  Madame  Siron  told  me." 

"Dodd,  of  San  Francisco,"  I  continued.  "Late  of 
Pinkerton  and  Dodd." 

"  Montana  Block  ?  I  think,"  said  he. 

"The  same,"  said  I. 

Neither  of  us  looked  at  the  other ;  but  I  could  see  his 
hand  deliberately  making  bread  pills. 

"  That's  a  nice  thing  of  yours,"  I  pursued,  "  that  panel. 
The  foreground  is  a  little  clayey,  perhaps,  but  the  lagoon 
is  excellent." 

"  You  ovTght  to  know,"  said  he. 

"  Yes,"  returned  I,  '•'  I'm  rather  a  good  judge  of  —  that 
panel." 

There  was  a  considerable  pause. 

"You  know  a  man  by  the  name  of  Bellairs,  don't 
you  ?  "  he  resumed. 

"  Ah ! "  cried  I,  "  you  have  heard  from  Doctor  Ur- 
quart  ?  " 

"This  very  morning,"  he  replied. 

"Well,  there  is  no  hurry  about  Bellairs,"  said  I. 
"  It's  rather  a  long  story  and  rather  a  silly  one.  But  I 
think  we  have  a  good  deal  to  tell  each  other,  and  per- 
haps we  had  better  wait  till  we  are  more  alone." 

"I  think  so,"  said  he.  "Not  that  any  of  these  fellows 
know  English,  but  we'll  be  more  comfortable  over  at  my 
place.     Your  health,  Dodd." 


FACE   TO    FACE.  429 

And  we  took  wine  together  across  the  table. 

Thus  had  this  singular  introduction  passed  unper- 
ceived  in  the  midst  of  more  than  thirty  persons,  art 
students,  ladies  in  dressing-gowns  and  covered  with  rice 
powder,  six  foot  of  Siron  whisking  dishes  over  our  head, 
and  his  noisy  sons  clattering  in  and  out  with  fresh 
relays. 

"One  question  more,"  said  I.  "Did  you  recognise  my 
voice  ?  " 

"  Your  voice  ? "  he  repeated.  "  How  should  I  ?  I 
had  never  heard  it — we  have  never  met." 

"  And  yet,  we  have  been  in  conversation  before  now," 
said  I,  "and  I  asked  you  a  question  which  you  never 
answered,  and  which  I  have  since  had  many  thousand 
better  reasons  for  putting  to  myself." 

He  turned  suddenly  white.  "  Good  God ! "  he  cried, 
"are  you  the  man  in  the  telephone  ?  " 

I  nodded. 

"  Well,  well !  "  said  he.  "  It  would  take  a  good  deal 
of  magnanimity  to  forgive  you  that.  What  nights  I 
have  passed!  That  little  whisper  has  whistled  in  my 
ear  ever  since,  like  the  wind  in  a  keyhole.  Who  could 
it  be  ?  What  could  it  mean  ?  I  suppose  I  have  had 
more  real,  solid  misery  out  of  that  .  .  ."  He  paused, 
and  looked  troubled.  "Though  I  had  more  to  bother 
me,  or  ought  to  have,"  he  added,  and  slowly  emptied 
his  glass. 

"It  seems  we  Avere  born  to  drive  each  other  crazy 


430  THE    WEECKER. 

with  conundrums,"  said  I.  "I  have  often  thought  my 
head  would  split." 

Carthew  burst  into  his  foolish  laugh.  "  And  yet 
neither  you  nor  I  had  the  worst  of  the  puzzle,"  he  cried. 
"  There  were  others  deeper  in." 

"  And  who  were  they  ?  "  I  asked. 

"  The  underwriters,"  said  he. 

"Why,  to  be  sure,"  cried  I.  "I  never  thought  of 
that.     What  could  they  make  of  it  ?  " 

" iSTothiag,"  replied  Carthew.  "It  couldn't  be  ex- 
plained. They  were  a  crowd  of  small  dealers  at  Lloyd's 
who  took  it  up  in  syndicate  ;  one  of  them  has  a  carriage 
now ;  and  people  say  he  is  a  deuce  of  a  deep  fellow,  and 
has  the  makings  of  a  great  financier.  Another  furnished 
a  small  villa  on  the  profits.  But  they're  all  hopelessly 
muddled ;  and  when  they  meet  each  other,  they  don't 
know  where  to  look,  like  the  Augurs." 

Dinner  was  no  sooner  at  an  end,  than  he  carried  me 
across  the  road  to  Masson's  old  studio.  It  was  strangely 
changed.  On  the  walls  were  tapestry,  a  few  good  etch- 
ings, and  some  amazing  pictures  —  a  Kousseau,  a  Corot, 
a  really  superb  old  Crome,  a  Whistler,  and  a  piece  which 
my  host  claimed  (and  I  believe)  to  be  a  Titian.  The 
room  was  furnished  with  comfortable  English  smoking- 
room  chairs,  some  American  rockers,  and  an  elaborate 
business  table ;  spirits  and  soda-water  (with  the  mark 
of  Schvveppe,  no  less)  stood  ready  on  a  butler's  tray, 
and  in  one  corner,  behind  a  half-drawn  curtain,  I  spied 


FACE   TO   FACE.  431 

a  camp-bed  and  a  capacious  tub.  Such  a  room  in  Bar- 
bizon  astonished  the  beholder,  like  the  glories  of  the 
cave  of  Monte  Cristo. 

"IsTow,"  said  he,  ''we  are  quiet.  Sit  down,  if  you 
don't  mind,  and  tell  me  your  story  all  through." 

I  did  as  he  asked,  beginning  with  the  day  when  Jim 
showed  me  the  passage  in  the  Daily  Occidental,  and 
winding  up  with  the  stamp  album  and  the  Chailly  post- 
mark. It  was  a  long  business;  and  Carthew  made  it 
longer,  for  he  was  insatiable  of  details ;  and  it  had 
struck  midnight  on  the  old  eight-day  clock  in  the  corner, 
before  I  had  made  an  end. 

"  And  now,"  said  he,  "  tiirn  about :  I  must  tell  you  my 
side,  much  as  I  hate  it.  Mine  is  a  beastly  story.  You'll 
wonder  how  I  can  sleep.  I've  told  it  once  before,  Mr. 
Dodd." 

"  To  Lady  Ann  ?  "  I  asked. 

"  As  you  suppose,"  he  answered ;  "  and  to  say  the 
truth,  I  had  sworn  never  to  tell  it  again.  Only,  you 
seem  somehow  entitled  to  the  thing ;  you  have  paid  dear 
enough,  God  knows ;  and  God  knows  I  hope  you  may 
like  it,  now  you've  got  it !  " 

With  that  he  began  his  yarn.  A  new  day  had  dawned, 
the  cocks  crew  in  the  village  and  the  early  woodmen 
were  afoot,  when  he  concluded. 


432  THE   WRECKER. 

CHAPTER   XXII. 

THE    REMITTANCE    MAN. 

Singleton  Carthew,  the  father  of  Norris,  was  heavily- 
built  and  feebly  vitalised,  sensitive  as  a  musician,  dull 
as  a  sheep,  and  conscientious  as  a  dog.  He  took  his 
position  with  seriousness,  even  with  pomp ;  the  long 
rooms,  the  silent  servants,  seemed  in  his  eyes  like  the 
observances  of  some  religion  of  which  he  was  the  mortal 
god.  He  had  the  stupid  man's  intolerance  of  stupidity 
in  others ;  the  vain  man's  exquisite  alarm  lest  it  should 
be  detected  in  himself.  And  on  both  sides  Norris  irri- 
tated and  offended  him.  He  thought  his  son  a  fool,  and 
he  suspected  that  his  son  returned  the  compliment  with 
interest.  The  history  of  their  relation  was  simple  ;  they 
met  seldom,  they  quarrelled  often.  To  his  mother,  a 
fiery,  pungent,  practical  woman,  already  disappointed  in 
her  husband  and  her  elder  son,  Norris  was  only  a  fresh 
disappointment. 

Yet  the  lad's  faults  were  no  great  matter;  he  was 
diffident,  placable,  passive,  unambitious,  unenterprising; 
life  did  not  much  attract  him ;  he  watched  it  like  a  curi- 
ous and  dull  exhibition,  not  much  amused,  and  not 
tempted  in  the  least  to  take  a  part.  He  beheld  his 
father  ponderously  grinding  sand,  his  mother  fierily 
breaking  butterflies,  his  brother  labouring  at  the  pleas- 


THE   REMITTANCE   MAN.  433 

ures  of  the  Hawbuck  with  the  ardour  of  a  soldier  in  a 
doubtful  battle ;  and  the  vital  sceptic  looked  on  wonder- 
ing. They  were  careful  and  troubled  about  many  things  ; 
for  him  there  seemed  not  even  one  thing  needful.  He 
was  born  disenchanted,  the  world's  promises  awoke  no 
echo  in  his  bosom,  the  world's  activities  and  the  world's 
distinctions  seemed  to  him  equpJly  without  a  base  in 
fact.  He  liked  the  open  air ;  he  liked  comradeship,  it 
mattered  not  with  whom,  his  comrades  were  only  a 
remedy  for  solitude.  And  he  had  a  taste  for  painted  art. 
An  array  of  fine  pictures  looked  upon  his  childhood  and 
from  these  roods  of  jewelled  canvas  he  received  an  in- 
delible impression.  The  gallery  at  Stallbridge  betokened 
generations  of  picture  lovers ;  Norris  was  perhaps  the 
first  of  his  race  to  hold  tlie  pencil.  The  taste  was  genu- 
ine, it  grew  and  strengthened  with  his  growth ;  and  yet 
he  suffered  it  to  be  suppressed  with  scarce  a  struggle. 
Time  came  for  him  to  go  to  Oxford,  and  he  resisted 
faintly.  He  was  stupid,  he  said ;  it  was  no  good  to  put 
him  through  the  mill ;  he  wished  to  be  a  painter.  The 
words  fell  on  his  father  like  a  thunderbolt,  and  Norris 
made  haste  to  give  way.  "  It  didn't  really  matter,  don't 
you  know  ?  "  said  he.  "  And  it  seemed  an  awful  shame 
to  vex  the  old  boy." 

To  Oxford  he  went  obediently,  hopelessly ;  and  at 
Oxford  became  the  hero  of  a  certain  circle.  He  was 
active  and  adroit ;  when  he  was  in  the  humour,  he  ex- 
celled  in   many   sports  j    and  his   singular   melancholy 


434  THE   WRECKER. 

detachment  gave  him  a  place  apart.  He  set  a  fashion 
in  his  clique ;  envious  undergraduates  sought  to  parody 
his  unaffected  lack  of  zeal  and  fear ;  it  was  a  kind  of 
new  Byronism  more  composed  and  dignified.  "  Nothing 
really  mattered " ;  among  other  things,  this  formula 
embraced  the  dons;  and  though  he  always  meant  to  be 
civil,  the  effect  on  the  college  authorities  was  one  of 
startling  rudeness.  His  indifference  cut  like  insolence; 
and  in  some  outbreak  of  his  constitutional  levity  (the 
complement  of  his  melancholy)  he  was  "sent  down"  in 
the  middle  of  the  second  year. 

The  event  was  new  in  the  annals  of  the  Carthews,  and 
Singleton  was  prepared  to  make  the  most  of  it.  It  had 
been  long  his  practice  to  prophesy  for  his  second  son 
a  career  of  ruin  and  disgrace.  There  is  an  advantage 
in  this  artless  parental  habit.  Doubtless  the  father  is 
interested  in  his  son ;  but  doubtless  also  the  prophet 
grows  to  be  interested  in  his  prophecies.  If  the  one 
goes  wrong,  the  others  come  true.  Old  Carthew  drew 
from  this  source  esoteric  consolations  ;  he  dwelt  at 
length  on  his  own  foresight ;  he  produced  variations 
hitherto  unheard  from  the  old  theme  "I  told  you  so," 
coupled  his  son's  name  with  the  gallows  and  the  hulks, 
and  spoke  of  his  small  handful  of  college  debts  as  though 
he  must  raise  money  on  a  mortgage  to  discharge  them. 

"  I  don't  think  that  is  fair,  sir,"  said  Norris.  "  I  lived 
at  college  exactly  as  you  told  me.  I  am  sorry  I  was 
sent  down,  and  you  have  a  perfect  right  to  blame  me  for 


THE   REMITTANCE   MAN.  435 

that ;   but  you  have  no  right  to  pitch  into  me  about 
these  debts." 

The  effect  upon  a  stupid  man  not  unjustly  incensed 
need  scarcely  be  described.  For  a  while  Singleton 
raved. 

"  I'll  tell  you  what,  father,"  said  Norris  at  last,  "  I 
don't  think  this  is  going  to  do.  I  think  you  had  better 
let  me  take  to  painting.  It's  the  only  thing  I  take  a 
spark  of  interest  in.  I  shall  never  be  steady  as  long  as 
I'm  at  anything  else." 

"  When  you  stand  here,  sir,  to  the  neck  in  disgrace," 
said  the  father,  "  I  should  have  hoped  you  would  have 
had  more  good  taste  than  to  repeat  this  levity." 

The  hint  was  taken;  the  levity  was  nevermore  ob- 
truded on  the  father's  notice,  and  Norris  was  inexorably 
launched  upon  a  backward  voyage.  He  went  abroad  to 
study  foreign  languages,  which  he  learned,  at  a  very 
expensive  rate ;  and  a  fresh  crop  of  debts  fell  soon  to  be 
paid,  with  similar  lamentations,  which  were  in  this  case  • 
perfectly  justified,  and  to  which  Norris  paid  no  regard. 
He  had  been  unfairly  treated  over  the  Oxford  affair; 
and  with  a  spice  of  malice  very  surprising  in  one  so 
placable,  and  an  obstinacy  remarkable  in  one  so  weak, 
refused  from  that  day  forward  to  exercise  the  least 
captaincy  on  his  expenses.  He  wasted  what  he  would ; 
he  allowed  his  servants  to  despoil  him  at  their  pleasure ; 
he  sowed  insolvency ;  and  when  the  crop  was  ripe,  noti- 
fied his  father  with  exasperating  calm.     His  own  capital 


436  THE   WRECKER. 

was  put  in  his  hands,  he  was  planted  in  the  diplomatic 
service  and  told  he  must  depend  upon  himself. 

He  did  so  till  he  was  twenty-five ;  by  which  time  he 
had  spent  liis  money,  laid  in  a  liandsome  choice  of 
debts,  and  acquired  (like  so  many  other  melancholic  and 
uninterested  persons)  a  habit  of  gambling.  An  Austrian 
colone  — the  same  who  afterwards  hanged  himself  at 
Monte  Carlo  —  gave  him  a  lesson  which  lasted  two-and- 
twenty  hours,  and  left  him  wrecked  and  helpless.  Old 
Singleton  once  more  repurchased  the  honour  of  his  name, 
this  time  at  a  fancy  figure ;  and  Xorris  was  set  afloat 
again  on  stern  conditions.  An  allowance  of  three  hun- 
dred pounds  in  the  year  was  to  be  paid  to  him  quarterly 
by  a  lawyer  in  Sydney,  New  South  Wales.  He  was  not 
to  write.  Should  he  fail  on  any  quarter-day  to  be  in 
Sydney,  he  was  to  be  held  for  dead  and  the  allowance 
tacitly  withdrawn.  Should  he  return  to  Europe,  an 
advertisement  publicly  disowning  him  was  to  appear  in 
every  paper  of  repute. 

It  was  one  of  his  most  annoying  features  as  a  son, 
that  he  was  always  polite,  always  just,  and  in  whatever 
whirlwind  of  domestic  anger,  always  calm.  He  expected 
trouble ;  when  trouble  came,  he  was  unmoved :  he  might 
have  said  with  Singleton  "  I  told  you  so  ",•  he  was  con- 
tent with  thinking  "just  as  I  expected^  On  the  fall 
of  these  last  thunderbolts,  he  bore  himself  like  a  per- 
son only  distantly  interested  in  the  event;  pocketed 
the  money  and  the  reproaches,  obeyed  orders   punctu- 


THE   EEMITTANCE  MAN.  437 

ally;  took  ship  and  came  to  Sydney.  Some  men  are 
still  lads  at  twenty-five ;  and  so  it  was  with  Norris. 
Eighteen  days  after  he  landed,  his  quarter's  allowance 
was  all  gone ;  and  with  the  light-hearted  hopefulness 
of  strangers  in  what  is  called  a  new  country,  he  began 
to  besiege  offices  and  apply  for  all  manner  of  incon- 
gruous situations.  Everywhere,  and  last  of  all  from 
his  lodgings,  he  was  bowed  out ;  and  found  himself  re- 
duced, in  a  very  elegant  suit  of  summer  tweeds,  to  herd 
and  camp  with  the  degraded  outcasts  of  the  city. 

In  this  strait,  he  had  recourse  to  the  lawyer  who  paid 
him  his  allowance. 

"  Try  to  remember  that  my  time  is  valuable,  Mr.  Car- 
thew,"  said  the  lawyer.  "It  is  quite  unnecessary  you 
should  enlarge  on  the  peculiar  position  in  which  you 
stand.  Remittance  men,  as  Ave  call  them  here,  are  not  so 
rare  in  my  experience  ;  and  in  such  cases  I  act  upon  a 
system.  I  make  you  a  present  of  a  sovereign ;  here 
it  is.  Every  day  you  choose  to  call,  my  clerk  will  ad- 
vance you  a  shilling ;  on  Saturday,  since  my  office  is 
closed  on  Sunday,  he  will  advance  you  half  a  crown. 
My  conditions  are  these :  that  you  do  not  come  to  me, 
but  to  my  clerk ;  that  you  do  not  come  here  the  worse 
of  liquor;  and  you  go  away  the  moment  you  are  paid 
and  have  signed  a  receipt.     I  wish  you  a  good-morning." 

"I  have  to  thank  you,  I  suppose,"  said  Carthew. 
"My  position  is  so  wretched  that  I  cannot  even  refuse 
this  starvation  allowance." 


438  THE   WRECKER. 

"  Starvation ! "  said  the  lawyer,  smiling.  "  No  man  will 
starve  here  on  a  shilling  a  day.  I  have  had  on  my  hands 
another  young  gentleman,  who  remained  continuously 
intoxicated  for  six  years  on  the  same  allowance."  And 
he  once  more  busied  himself  with  his  papers. 

In  the  time  that  followed,  the  image  of  the  smiling 
lawyer  haunted  Carthew's  memory,  "That  three  min- 
utes' talk  was  all  the  education  I  ever  had  worth  talking 
of,"  says  he.  "  It  was  all  life  in  a  nut-shell.  Confound 
it !  I  thought,  have  I  got  to  the  point  of  envying  that 
ancient  fossil  ?  " 

Every  morning  for  the  next  two  or  three  weeks,  the 
stroke  of  ten  found  Norris,  unkempt  and  haggard,  at  the 
lawyer's  door.  The  long  day  and  longer  night  he  spent 
in  the  Domain,  now  on  a  bench,  now  on  the  grass  under 
a  Norfolk  Island  pine,  the  companion  of  perhaps  the 
lowest  class  on  earth,  the  Larrikins  of  Sydney.  Morning 
after  morning,  the  dawn  behind  the  lighthouse  recalled 
him  from  slumber;  and  he  would  stand  and  gaze  upon 
the  changing  east,  the  fading  lenses,  the  smokeless  city, 
and  the  many-armed  and  many-masted  harbour  growing 
slowly  clear  under  his  eyes.  His  bed-fellows  (so  to  call 
them)  were  less  active ;  they  lay  sprawled  upon  the 
grass  and  benches,  the  dingy  men,  the  frowsy  women, 
prolonging  their  late  repose ;  and  Carthew  wandered 
among  the  sleeping  bodies  alone,  and  cursed  the  incura- 
ble stupidity  of  his  behaviour.  Day  brought  a  new  so- 
ciety of  nursery-maids  and  children,  and  fresh-dressed 


THE    REMITTANCE  MAN.  439 

and  (I  am  sorry  to  say)  tight-laced  maidens,  and  gay 
people  in  rich  traps ;  upon  the  skirts  of  which  Carthew 
and  "the  other  blackguards" — his  own  bitter  phrase  — 
skulked,  and  chewed  grass,  and  looked  on.  Day  passed, 
the  light  died,  the  green  and  leafy  precinct  sparkled 
with  lamps  or  lay  in  shadow,  and  the  round  of  the  night 
began  again,  the  loitering  women,  the  lurking  men,  the 
sudden  outburst  of  screams,  the  sound  of  flying  feet, 
"You  mayn't  believe  it,"  says  Carthew,  "but  I  got  to 
that  pitch  that  I  didn't  care  a  hang.  I  have  been  wak- 
ened out  of  my  sleep  to  hear  a  woman  screaming,  and  I 
have  only  turned  upon  my  other  side.  Yes,  it's  a  queer 
place,  where  the  dowagers  and  the  kids  walk  all  day, 
and  at  night  you  can  hear  people  bawling  for  help  as  if  it 
was  the  Forest  of  Bondy,  with  the  lights  of  a  great  town 
all  round,  and  parties  spinning  through  in  cabs  from 
Government  House  and  dinner  with  my  lord  !  " 

It  was  iN'orris's  diversion,  having  none  other,  to  scrape 
acquaintance,  where,  how,  and  with  whom  he  could. 
Many  a  long  dull  talk  he  held  upon  the  benches  or  the 
grass ;  many  a  strange  waif  he  came  to  know ;  many 
strange  things  he  heard,  and  saw  some  that  were  abomi- 
nable. It  was  to  one  of  these  last  that  he  owed  his 
deliverance  from  the  Domain.  For  some  time  the  rain 
had  been  merciless ;  one  night  after  another  he  had 
been  obliged  to  squander  fourpence  on  a  bed  and  reduce 
his  board  to  the  remaining  eightpence :  and  he  sat  one 
morning  near  the  Macquarrie  Street  entrance,  hungry, 


440  THE   WKECKER. 

for  he  had  gone  without  breakfast,  and  wet,  as  he  had 
already  been  for  several  days,  when  the  cries  of  an 
animal  in  distress  attracted  his  attention.  Some  fifty 
yards  away,  in  the  extreme  angle  of  the  grass,  a  party 
of  the  chronically  unemployed  had  got  hold  of  a  dog, 
whom  they  were  torturing  in  a  manner  not  to  be  de- 
scribed. The  heart  of  Norris,  which  had  grown  indif- 
ferent to  the  cries  of  human  anger  or  distress,  woke  at 
the  appeal  of  the  dumb  creature.  He  ran  amongst  the 
Larrikins,  scattered  them,  rescued  the  dog,  and  stood  at 
bay.  They  were  six  in  number,  shambling  gallowsbirds ; 
but  for  once  the  proverb  was  right,  cruelty  was  coupled 
with  cowardice,  and  the  wretches  cursed  him  and  made 
off.  It  chanced  this  act  of  prowess  had  not  passed 
unwitnessed.  On  a  bench  near  by  there  was  seated  a 
shopkeeper's  assistant  out  of  employ,  a  diminutive, 
cheerful,  red-headed  creature  by  the  name  of  Hem  stead. 
He  was  the  last  man  to  have  interfered  himself,  for  his 
discretion  more  than  equalled  his  valour ;  but  he  made 
haste  to  congratulate  Carthew,  and  to  warn  him  he 
might  not  always  be  so  fortunate. 

"  They're  a  dyngerous  lot  of  people  about  this  park. 
My  word  !  it  doesn't  do  to  ply  with  them  ! "  he  observed, 
in  that  rycy  Austrylian  English,  which  (as  it  has  re- 
ceived the  imprimatur  of  Mr.  Froude)  we  should  all 
make  haste  to  imitate. 

"■  Why,  I  'm  one  of  that  lot  myself,"  returned 
Carthew. 


THE   EEMITTANCE  MAN.  441 

Hemstead  laughed  and  remarked  that  lie  knew  a  gen- 
tleman when  he  saw  one. 

"  For  all  that,  I  am  simply  one  of  the  unemployed," 
said  Carthew,  seating  himself  beside  his  new  acquaint- 
ance, as  he  had  sat  (since  this  experience  began)  beside 
so  many  dozen  others. 

"  I'm  out  of  a  plyce  myself,"  said  Hemstead. 

"You  beat  me  all  the  way  and  back,"  says  Carthew. 
"My  trouble  is  that  I  have  never  been  in  one." 

"  I  suppose  you've  no  tryde  ?  "  asked  Hemstead. 

"  I  know  how  to  spend  money,"  replied  Carthew,  "  and 
I  really  do  know  something  of  horses  and  something  of 
the  sea.  But  the  unions  head  me  off ;  if  it  weren't  for 
them,  I  might  have  had  a  dozen  berths." 

"  My  word  !  "  cried  the  sympathetic  listener.  "  Ever 
try  the  mounted  police  ?  "  he  inquired. 

"  I  did,  and  was  bowled  out,"  was  the  reply ;  "  couldn't 
pass  the  doctors." 

"  Well,  what  do  you  think  of  the  ryleways,  then  ? " 
asked  Hemstead. 

"  What  do  yon  think  of  them,  if  you  come  to  that  ?  " 
asked  Carthew. 

"  0,  /  don't  think  of  them ;  I  don't  go  in  for  manual 
labour,"  said  the  little  man,  proudly.  "But  if  a  man 
don't  mind  that,  lie's  pretty  sure  of  a  job  there." 

"  By  George,  you  tell  me  Avhere  to  go  !  "  cried  Carthew, 
rising. 

The  heavy  rains  continued,  the  country  was  already 


442  THE   WKECKER. 

overrun  with  floods ;  the  railway  system  daily  required 
more  hands,  daily  the  superintendent  advertised;  but 
"the  unemployed"  preferred  the  resources  of  charity 
and  rapine,  and  a  navvy,  even  an  amateur  navvy,  com- 
manded money  in  the  market.  The  same  night,  after 
a  tedious  journey,  and  a  change  of  trains  to  pass  a  land- 
slip, Norris  found  himself  in  a  muddy  cutting  behind 
South  Clifton,  attacking  his  first  shift  of  manual  labour. 
For  weeks  the  rain  scarce  relented.  The  whole  front 
of  the  mountain  slipped  seaward  from  above,  avalanches 
of  clay,  rock,  and  uprooted  forest  spewed  over  the  cliffs 
and  fell  upon  the  beach  or  in  the  breakers.  Houses 
were  carried  bodily  away  and  smashed  like  nuts ;  others 
were  menaced  and  deserted,  the  door  locked,  the  chimney 
cold,  the  dwellers  fled  elsewhere  for  safety.  Night  and 
day  the  fire  blazed  in  the  encampment;  night  and  day 
hot  coffee  was  served  to  the  overdriven  toilers  in  the 
shift ;  night  and  day  the  engineer  of  the  section  made 
his  round  with  words  of  encouragement,  hearty  and 
rough  and  well  suited  to  his  men.  Night  and  day,  too, 
the  telegraph  clicked  with  disastrous  news  and  anxious 
inquiry.  Along  the  terraced  line  of  rail,  rare  trains  came 
creeping  and  signalling;  and  paused  at  the  threatened 
corner,  like  living  things  conscious  of  peril.  The  com- 
mandant of  the  post  would  hastily  review  his  labours, 
make  (with  a  dry  throat)  the  signal  to  advance ;  and  the 
whole  squad  line  the  way  and  look  on  in  a  choking 
silence,  or  burst  into  a  brief  cheer  as  the  train  cleared 


THE   REMITTANCE  MAK.  443 

the  point  of  danger  and  shot  on,  perhaps  through  the 
thin  sunshine  between  squalls,  perhaps  with  blinking 
lamps  into  the  gathering,  rainy  twilight. 

One  such  scene  Carthew  will  remember  till  he  dies. 
It  blew  great  guns  from  the  seaward ;  a  huge  surf  bom- 
barded, five  hundred  feet  below  him,  the  steep  moun- 
tain's foot ;  close  in  was  a  vessel  in  distress,  firing  shots 
from  a  fowling-piece,  if  any  help  might  come.  So  he 
saw  and  heard  her  the  moment  before  the  train  appeared 
and  paused,  throwing  up  a  Babylonian  tower  of  smoke 
into  the  rain  and  oppressing  men's  hearts  with  the 
scream  of  her  whistle.  The  engineer  was  there  himself ; 
he  paled  as  he  made  the  signal :  the  engine  came  at  a 
foot's  pace ;  but  the  whole  bulk  of  mountain  shook  and 
seemed  to  nod  seaward,  and  the  watching  navvies  in- 
stinctively clutched  at  shrubs  and  trees  :  vain  precau- 
cautions,  vain  as  the  shots  from  the  poor  sailors.  Once 
again  fear  was  disappointed ;  the  train  passed  unscathed ; 
and  Norris,  drawing  a  long  breath,  remembered  the 
labouring  ship  and  glanced  below.     She  was  gone. 

So  the  days  and  the  nights  passed :  Homeric  labour 
in  Homeric  circumstance.  Carthew  was  sick  with  sleep- 
lessness and  coffee  ;  his  hands,  softened  by  the  wet,  were 
cut  to  ribbons ;  yet  he  enjoyed  a  peace  of  mind  and 
health  of  body  hitherto  unknown.  Plenty  of  open  air, 
plenty  of  physical  exertion,  a  continual  instancy  of  toil, 
here  was  what  had  been  hitherto  lacking  in  that  mis- 
directed life,  and  the  true  cure  of  vital  scepticism.     To 


444  THE   WRECKER. 

get  the  train  through  :  there  was  the  recurrent  problem ; 
no  time  remained  to  ask  if  it  were  necessary.  Carthew, 
the  idler,  the  spendthrift,  the  drifting  dilettant,  was 
soon  remarked,  praised,  and  advanced.  The  engineer 
swore  by  him  and  pointed  him  out  for  an  example. 
"  I've  a  new  chum,  up  here,"  Norris  overheard  him  say- 
ing, "  a  young  SAvell.  He's  worth  any  two  in  the  squad." 
The  words  fell  on  the  ears  of  the  discarded  son  like 
music ;  and  from  that  moment,  he  not  only  found  an 
interest,  he  took  a  pride,  in  his  plebeian  tasks. 

The  press  of  work  was  still  at  its  highest  when  quar- 
ter-day approached.  Norris  was  now  raised  to  a  position 
of  some  trust ;  at  his  discretion,  trains  were  stopped  or 
forwarded  at  the  dangerous  cornice  near  North  Clifton ; 
and  he  found  in  this  responsibility  both  terror  and 
delight.  The  thought  of  the  seventy-five  pounds  that 
would  soon  await  him  at  the  lawyer's,  and  of  his  own 
obligation  to  be  present  every  quarter-day  in  Sydney, 
filled  him  for  a  little  with  divided  councils.  Then  he 
made  up  his  mind,  walked  in  a  slack  moment  to  the  inn 
at  Clifton,  ordered  a  sheet  of  paper  and  a  bottle  of  beer, 
and  wrote,  explaining  that  he  held  a  good  appointment 
which  he  would  lose  if  he  came  to  Sydney,  and  asking 
the  lawyer  to  accept  this  letter  as  an  evidence  of  his 
presence  in  the  colony  and  retain  the  money  till  next 
quarter-day.  The  answer  came  in  course  of  post,  and 
was  not  merely  favourable  but  cordial.  "Although 
what  you   propose  is  contrary  to   the  terms  of  my  in- 


THE   REMITTANCE   MAN.  445 

structions,"  it  ran,  ''I  willingly  accept  the  responsi- 
bility of  granting  your  request.  I  should  say  I  am 
agreeably  disappointed  in  your  behaviour.  My  experi- 
ence has  not  led  me  to  found  much  expectations  on 
gentlemen  in  your  position." 

The  rains  abated,  and  the  temporary  labour  was  dis- 
charged ;  not  Norris,  to  whom  the  engineer  clung  as  to 
found  money ;  not  Norris,  who  found  himself  a  ganger 
on  the  line  in  the  regular  staff  of  navvies.  His  camp 
was  pitched  in  a  grey  wilderness  of  rock  and  forest,  far 
from  any  house;  as  he  sat  with  his  mates  about  the 
evening  fire,  the  trains  passing  on  the  track  were  their 
next  and  indeed  their  only  neighbours,  except  the  wild 
things  of  the  wood.  Lovely  weather,  light  and  monoto- 
nous employment,  long  hours  of  somnolent  camp-fire 
talk,  long  sleepless  nights,  when  he  reviewed  his  foolish 
and  fruitless  career  as  he  rose  and  walked  in  the  moonlit 
forest,  an  occasional  paper  of  which  he  would  read  all, 
the  advertisements  with  as  much  relish  as  the  text: 
such  was  the  tenor  of  an  existence  which  soon  began  to 
weary  and  harass  him.  He  lacked  and  regretted  the 
fatigue,  the  furious  hurry,  the  suspense,  the  fires,  the 
midnight  coffee,  the  rude  and  mud-bespattered  poetry  of 
the  first  toilful  weeks.  In  the  quietness  of  his  new 
surroundings,  a  voice  summoned  him  from  this  exorbital 
part  of  life,  and  about  the  middle  of  October  he  threw 
up  his  situation  and  bade  farewell  to  the  camp  of  tents 
and  the  shoulder  of  Bald  Mountain. 


446  THE   WRECKER. 

Clad  in  his  rough  clothes,  with  a  bundle  on  his  shoul- 
der and  his  accumulated  wages  in  his  pocket,  he  entered 
Sydney  for  the  second  time,  and  walked  with  pleasure 
and  some  bewilderment  in  the  cheerful  streets,  like  a 
man  landed  from  a  voyage.  The  sight  of  the  people 
led  him  on.  He  forgot  his  necessary  errands,  he  for- 
got to  eat.  He  wandered  in  moving  multitudes  like  a 
stick  upon  a  river.  Last  he  came  to  the  Domain  and 
strolled  there,  and  remembered  his  shame  and  suffer- 
ings, and  looked  with  poignant  curiosity  at  his  suc- 
cessors. Hemstead,  not  much  shabbier  and  no  less 
cheerful  than  before,  he  recognised  and  addressed  like 
an  old  family  friend. 

"That  was  a  good  turn  you  did  me,"  said  he.  "That 
railway  was  the  making  of  me.  I  hope  you've  had  luck 
yourself." 

"My  word,  no!"  replied  the  little  man.  "I  just  sit 
here  and  read  the  Dead  Bird.  It's  the  depression  in 
tryde,  you  see.  There's  no  positions  goin'  that  a  man 
like  me  would  care  to  look  at."  And  he  showed  Norris 
his  certificates  and  written  characters,  one  from  a  grocer 
in  Wooloomooloo,  one  from  an  ironmonger,  and  a  third 
from  a  billiard  saloon.  "  Yes,"  he  said,  "  I  tried  beiu' 
a  billiard  marker.  It's  no  account ;  these  lyte  hours  are 
no  use  for  a  man's  health.  I  won't  be  no  man's  slyve," 
he  added  firmly. 

On  the  principle  that  he  who  is  too  proud  to  be  a  slave 
is  usually  not  too  modest  to  become  a  pensioner,  Carthew 


THE   REMITTANCE   MAN.  447 

gave  him  half  a  sovereign,  and  departed,  being  suddenly 
struck  with  hunger,  in  the  direction  of  the  Paris  House. 
When  he  came  to  that  quarter  of  the  city,  the  barristers 
were  trotting  in  the  streets  in  wig  and  gown,  and  he 
stood  to  observe  them  with  his  bundle  on  his  shoulder, 
and  his  mind  full  of  curious  recollections  of  the  past. 
"  By  George  ! "  cried  a  voice,  "  it's  Mr.  Carthew  ! " 
And  turning  about,  he  found  himself  face  to  face  with 
a  handsome  sunburnt  youth,  somewhat  fatted,  arrayed 
in  the  finest  of  fine  raiment,  and  sporting  about  a  sov- 
ereign's worth  of  flowers  in  his  buttonhole.  Norris  had 
met  him  during  his  first  days  in  Sydney  at  a  farewell 
supper ;  had  even  escorted  him  on  board  a  schooner  full 
of  cockroaches  and  black-boy  sailors  in  which  he  was 
bound  for  six  months  among  the  islands ;  and  had  kept 
him  ever  since  in  entertained  remembrance.  Tom  Had- 
den  (known  to  the  bulk  of  Sydney  folk  as  Tommy)  was 
heir  to  a  considerable  property,  which  a  prophetic  father 
had  placed  in  the  hands  of  rigorous  trustees.  The  in- 
come supported  Mr.  Hadden  in  splendour  for  about  three 
months  out  of  twelve ;  the  rest  of  the  year  he  passed  in 
retreat  among  the  islands.  He  was  now  about  a  week 
returned  from  his  eclipse,  pervading  Sydney  in  hansom 
cabs  and  airing  the  first  bloom  of  six  new  suits  of 
clothes;  and  yet  the  unaffected  creature  hailed  Cartliew 
in  his  working  jeans  and  with  the  damning  bundle  on 
his  shoulder,  as  he  might  have  claimed  acquaintance 
with  a  duke. 


448  THE   WRECKER. 

"  Come  and  have  a  drink  I "  was  his  cheerful  cry. 

"I'm  just  going  to  have  lunch  at  the  Paris  House," 
returned  Carthew.  "  It's  a  long  time  since  I  have  had 
a  decent  meal." 

"  Splendid  scheme  ! "  said  Hadden.  "  I've  only  had 
breakfast  half  an  hour  ago;  but  we'll  have  a  private 
room,  and  I'll  manage  to  pick  something.  It'll  brace 
me  up.  I  was  on  an  awful  tear  last  night,  and  I've  met 
no  end  of  fellows  this  morning."  To  meet  a  fellow,  and 
to  stand  and  share  a  drink,  were  with  Tom  synonymous 
terms. 

They  were  soon  at  table  in  the  corner  room  up-stairs, 
and  paying  due  attention  to  the  best  fare  in  Sydney. 
The  odd  similarity  of  their  positions  drew  them  to- 
gether, and  they  began  soon  to  exchange  confidences. 
Carthew  related  his  privations  in  the  Domain  "and  his 
toils  as  a  navvy  ;  Hadden  gave  his  experience  as  an  ama- 
teur copra  merchant  in  the  South  Seas,  and  drew  a  hiimor- 
ous  picture  of  life  in  a  coral  island.  Of  the  two  plans  of 
retirement,  Carthew  gathered  that  his  own  had  been 
vastly  the  more  lucrative;  but  Hadden's  trading  outfit 
had  consisted  largely  of  bottled  stout  and  brown  sherry 
for  his  own  consumption. 

"I  had  champagne  too,"  said  Hadden,  "but  I  kept 
that  in  case  of  sickness,  until  I  didn't  seem  to  be  going 
to  be  sick,  and  then  I  opened  a  pint  every  Sunday. 
Used  to  sleep  all  morning,  then  breakfast  with  ray  pint 
of  fizz,  and  lie  in  a  hammock  and  read  Hallam's  Middle 


THE   REMITTANCE   MAN.  449 

Ages.  Have  you  read  that  ?  I  always  take  something 
solid  to  the  islands.  There's  no  doubt  I  did  the  thing 
in  rather  a  fine  style ;  but  if  it  was  gone  about  a  little 
cheaper,  or  there  were  two  of  us  to  bear  the  expense,  it 
ought  to  pay  hand  over  fist.  I've  got  the  influence,  you 
see.  I'm  a  chief  now,  and  sit  in  the  speak-house  under 
my  own  strip  of  roof.  I'd  like  to  see  them  taboo  me ! 
They  daren't  try  it;  I've  a  strong  party,  I  can  tell  you. 
Why,  I've  had  upwards  of  thirty  cowtops  sitting  in  my 
front  verandah  eating  tins  of  salmon." 

"  Cowtops  ?  "  asked  Carthew,  "  what  are  they  ?  " 
"That's  what  Hallam  would  call  feudal  retainers," 
explained  Hadden,  not  without  vainglory.  "  They're 
My  Followers.  They  belong  to  My  Family.  I  tell  you, 
they  come  expensive,  though ;  you  can't  fill  up  all  these 
retainers  on  tinned  salmon  for  nothing ;  but  whenever  I 
could  get  it,  I  would  give  'em  squid.  Squid's  good  for 
natives,  but  I  don't  care  for  it,  do  you  ?  —  or  shark 
either.  It's  like  the  working  classes  at  home.  With 
copra  at  the  price  it  is,  they  ought  to  be  willing  to 
bear  their  share  of  the  loss ;  and  so  I've  told  them  again 
and  again.  I  think  it's  a  man's  duty  to  open  their 
minds,  and  I  try  to,  but  you  can't  get  political  economy 
into  them ;  it  doesn't  seem  to  reach  their  intelligence." 

There  was  an  expression  still  sticking  in  Carthew's 
memory,  and  he  returned  upon  it  with  a  smile.  "  Talk- 
ing of  political  economy,"  said  he,  "you  said  if  there 
were  two  of  us  to  bear  the  expense,  the  profits  would 
increase.     How  do  you  make  out  that  ?  " 


450  THE   WRECKER. 

"  I'll  show  you !  I'll  figure  it  out  for  you ! "  cried 
Hadden,  and  w|th  a  pencil  on  the  back  of  the  bill  of 
fare,  proceeded  to  perform  miracles.  He  was  a  man,  or 
let  us  rather  say  a  lad,  of  unusual  projective  power. 
Give  him  the  faintest  hint  of  any  speculation,  and  the 
figures  flowed  from  him  by  the  page.  A  lively  imagina- 
tion and  a  ready  though  inaccurate  memory  supplied  his 
data ;  he  delivered  himself  with  an  inimitable  heat  that 
made  him  seem  the  picture  of  pugnacity ;  lavished  con- 
tradiction ;  had  a  form  of  words,  with  or  without  signifi- 
cance, for  every  form  of  criticism;  and  the  looker-on 
alternately  smiled  at  his  simplicity  and  fervour,  or  was 
amazed  by  his  unexpected  shrewdness.  He  was  a  kind 
of  Pinkerton  in  play.  I  have  called  Jim's  the  romance 
of  business ;  this  was  its  Arabian  tale. 

"  Have  you  any  idea  what  this  would  cost  ? "  he 
asked,  pausing  at  an  item. 

"  Not  I,"  said  Carthew. 

"  Ten  pounds  ought  to  be  ample,"  concluded  the  pro- 
jector. 

"  0,  nonsense  !  "  cried  Carthew.  "  Fifty  at  the  very 
least." 

"  You  told  me  yourself  this  moment  you  knew  nothing 
about  it !  "  cried  Tommy.  "  How  can  I  make  a  calcu- 
lation, if  you  blow  hot  and  cold  ?  You  don't  seem  able 
to  be  serious  !  " 

But  he  consented  to  raise  his  estimate  to  twenty ;  and 
a  little  after,  the  calculation  coming  out  with  a  deficit, 


THE   REMITTANCE  MAN.  451 

cut  it  down  again  to  five  pound  ten,  witli  the  remark,  "I 
told  you  it  was  nonsense.  This  sort  of  thing  has  to  be 
done  strictly,  or  where's  the  use  ?  " 

Some  of  these  processes  struck  Carthew  as  unsound; 
and  he  was  at  times  altogether  thrown  out  by  the  capri- 
cious startings  of  the  prophet's  mind.  These  plunges 
seemed  to  be  gone  into  for  exercise  and  by  the  way,  like 
the  curvets  of  a  willing  horse.  Gradually  the  thing 
took  shape ;  the  glittering  if  baseless  edifice  arose ;  and 
the  hare  still  ran  on  the  mountains,  but  the  soup  was 
already  served  in  silver  plate.  Carthew  in  a  few  days 
could  command  a  hundred  and  fifty  pounds ;  Had- 
den  was  ready  with  five  hundred ;  why  should  they  not 
recruit  a  fellow  or  two  more,  charter  an  old  ship,  and  go 
cruising  on  their  own  account  ?  Carthew  was  an  ex- 
perienced yachtsman  ;  Hadden  professed  himself  able  to 
"  work  an  approximate  sight."  Money  was  undoubtedly 
to  be  made,  or  why  should  so  many  vessels  cruise  about 
the  islands  ?  they,  who  worked  their  own  ship,  were 
sure  of  a  still  higher  profit. 

"And  whatever  else  comes  of  it,  you  see,"  cried 
Hadden,  "we  get  our  keep  for  nothing.  Come,  buy 
some  togs,  that's  the  first  thing  you  have  to  do  of  course ; 
and  then  we'll  take  a  hansom  and  go  to  the  Currency 
Lass." 

"  I'm  going  to  stick  to  the  togs  I  have,"  said  Norris. 

"Are  you?"  cried  Hadden.  "Well,  I  must  say  I 
admire  you.     You're  a  regular  sage.     It's  what  you  call 


152  THE   WRECKER. 

Pythagoreanism,  isn't  it  ?  if  I  haven't  forgotten  my 
philosophy." 

"  Well,  I  call  it  economy,"  returned  Carthew.  "  If 
we  are  going  to  try  this  thing  on,  I  shall  want  every 
sixpence." 

"You'll  see  if  we're  going  to  try  it!"  cried  Tommy, 
rising  radiant  from  table.  "Only,  mark  you,  Carthew, 
it  must  be  all  in  your  name.  I  have  capital,  you  see ; 
but  you're  all  right.  You  can  play  vacuus  viator,  if  the 
thing  goes  wrong." 

"  I  thought  we  had  just  proved  it  was  quite  safe," 
said  Carthew. 

"There's  nothing  safe  in  business,  my  boy,"  replied 
the  sage  ;  "not  even  bookmaking." 

The  public  house  and  tea  garden  called  the  Currency 
Lass  represented  a  moderate  fortune  gained  by  its 
proprietor.  Captain  Bostock,  during  a  long,  active,  and 
occasionally  historic  career  among  the  islands.  Any- 
where from  Tonga  to  the  Admiralty  Isles,  he  knew  the 
ropes  and  could  lie  in  the  native  dialect.  He  had  seen 
the  end  of  sandal  wood,  the  end  of  oil,  and  the  begin- 
ning of  copra ;  and  he  was  himself  a  commercial  pioneer, 
the  first  that  ever  carried  human  teeth  into  the  Gilberts. 
He  was  tried  for  his  life  in  Fiji  in  Sir  Arthur  Gordon's 
time ;  and  if  ever  he  prayed  at  all,  the  name  of  Sir 
Arthur  was  certainly  not  forgotten.  He  was  speared 
in  seven  places  in  New  Ireland  —  the  same  time  his 
mate   was   killed — the   famous    "outrage   on   the   brig 


THE    REMITTANCE   MAN".  453 

Jolly  Roger" ;  but  the  treacherous  savages  made  little 
by  their  wickedness,  and  Bostock,  in  spite  of  their  teeth, 
got  seventy-five  head  of  volunteer  labour  on  board,  of 
whom  not  more  than  a  dozen  died  of  injuries.  He  had 
a  hand,  besides,  in  the  amiable  pleasantry  which  cost 
the  life  of  Patteson  ;  and  when  the  sham  bishop  landed, 
prayed,  and  gave  his  benediction  to  the  natives,  Bostock, 
arrayed  in  a  female  chemise  out  of  the  traderoom,  had 
stood  at  his  right  hand  and  boomed  amens.  This,  when 
he  was  sure  he  was  among  good  fellows,  was  his  favourite 
yarn.  "  Two  hundred  head  of  labour  for  a  hatful  of 
amens,"  he  used  to  name  the  tale ;  and  its  sequel,  the 
death  of  the  real  bishop,  struck  him  as  a  circumstance 
of  extraordinary  humour. 

Many  of  these  details  were  communicated  in  the 
hansom,  to  the  surprise  of  Carthew. 

"  Why  do  we  want  to  visit  this  old  ruffian  ? "  he 
asked. 

"  You  wait  till  you  hear  him,"  replied  Tommy.  "  That 
man  knows  everything." 

On  descending  from  the  hansom  at  the  Currency  Lass, 
Hadden  was  struck  with  the  appearance  of  the  cabman, 
a  gross,  salt-looking  man,  red-faced,  blue-eyed,  short- 
handed  and  short-winded,  perhaps  nearing  forty. 

"  Surely  I  know  you  ?  "  said  he,  "  Have  you  driven 
me  before  ?  " 

"  Many's  the  time,  Mr.  Hadden,"  returned  the  driver. 
"The  last  time  you  was  back  from  the  islands,  it  was 
me  that  drove  you  to  the  races,  sir." 


454  THE   WRECKER. 

"  All  right :  jump  down  and  have  a  drink  then,"  said 
Tom,  and  he  turned  and  led  the  way  into  the  garden. 

Captain  Bostock  met  the  party :  he  was  a  slow,  sour 
old  man,  with  fishy  eyes ;  greeted  Tommy  offhand,  and 
(as  was  afterwards  remembered)  exchanged  winks  with 
the  driver. 

"  A  bottle  of  beer  for  the  cabman  there  at  that  table," 
said  Tom.  "Whatever  you  please  from  shandygaff  to 
champagne  at  this  one  here  ;  and  you  sit  down  with  us. 
Let  me  make  you  acquainted  with  my  friend,  Mr. 
Carthew.  I've  come  on  business,  Billy ;  I  want  to 
consult  you  as  a  friend ;  I'm  going  into  the  island  trade 
upon  my  own  account." 

Doubtless  the  captain  was  a  mine  of  counsel,  but 
opportunity  was  denied  him.  He  could  not  venture  on 
a  statement,  he  was  scarce  allowed  to  finish  a  phrase, 
before  Hadden  swept  him  from  the  field  with  a  volley 
of  protest  and  correction.  That  projector,  his  face 
blazing  with  inspiration,  first  laid  before  him  at  in- 
ordinate length  a  question,  and  as  soon  as  he  attempted 
to  reply,  leaped  at  his  throat,  called  his  facts  in  question, 
derided  his  policy,  and  at  times  thundered  on  him  from 
the  heights  of  moral  indignation. 

"  I  beg  your  pardon,"  he  said  once.  "  I  am  a  gentle- 
man, Mr.  Carthew  here  is  a  gentleman,  and  we  don't 
mean  to  do  that  class  of  business.  Can't  you  see  who 
you're  talking  to  ?  Can't  you  talk  sense  ?  Can't  you 
give  us  '  a  dead  bird '  for  a  good  traderoom  ?  " 


THE   KEMITTANCE   MAN.  455 

"  No,  I  don't  suppose  I  can,"  returned  old  Bostock ; 
"not  when  I  can't  hear  ray  own  voice  for  two  seconds 
together.     It  was  gin  and  guns  I  did  it  with." 

"  Take  your  gin  and  guns  to  Putney  ! "  cried  Hadden. 
"  It  was  the  thing  in  your  times,  that's  right  enough ; 
but  you're  old  now,  and  the  game's  up,  I'll  tell  you 
what's  wanted  now-a-days,  Bill  Bostock,"  said  he ;  and 
did,  and  took  ten  minutes  to  it. 

Carthew  could  not  refrain  from  smiling.  He  began 
to  think  less  seriously  of  the  scheme,  Hadden  appearing 
too  irresponsible  a  guide ;  but  on  the  other  hand,  he 
enjoyed  himself  amazingly.  It  was  far  from  being  the 
same  with  Captain  Bostock. 

"  You  know  a  sight,  don't  you  ?  "  remarked  that  gen- 
tleman, bitterly,  when  Tommy  paused. 

"I  know  a  sight  more  than  you,  if  that's  what  you 
mean,"  retorted  Tom.  "  It  stands  to  reason  I  do.  You're 
not  a  man  of  any  education ;  you've  been  all  your  life  at 
sea  or  in  the  islands ;  you  don't  suppose  you  can  give 
points  to  a  man  like  me  ?  " 

"Here's  your  health,  Tommy,"  returned  Bostock. 
"You'll  make  an  A-one  bake  in  the  New  Hebrides." 

"  That's  what  I  call  talking,"  cried  Tom,  not  perhaps 
grasping  the  spirit  of  this  doubtful  compliment.  "  Now 
you  give  me  your  attention.  We  have  the  money  and 
the  enterprise,  and  I  have  the  experience :  what  we 
want  is  a  cheap,  smart  boat,  a  good  captain,  and  an 
introduction  to  some  house  that  will  give  us  credit  for 
th::  trade." 


456  THE   WRECKER. 

"Well,  I'll  tell  you,"  said  Captain  Bostock.  "I  seen 
men  like  you  baked  and  eaten,  and  complained  of  after- 
wards. Some  was  tough,  and  some  hadn't  no  flaviour," 
he  added  grimly. 

"  What  do  you  mean  by  that  ?  "  cried  Tom. 

*'  I  mean  I  don't  care,"  said  Bostock.  "  It  aint  any  of 
my  interests.  I  haven't  underwrote  your  life.  Only 
I'm  blest  if  I'm  not  sorry  for  the  cannibal  as  tries  to  eat 
your  head.  And  what  I  recommend  is  a  cheap,  smart 
coffin  and  a  good  undertaker.  See  if  you  can  find  a 
house  to  give  you  credit  for  a  coffin !  Look  at  your 
friend  there ;  lie's  got  some  sense ;  he's  laughing  at  you 
so  as  he  can't  stand." 

The  exact  degree  of  ill-feeling  in  Mr.  Bostock's  mind 
was  difficult  to  gauge ;  perhaps  there  was  not  much, 
perhaps  he  regarded  his  remarks  as  a  form  of  courtly 
badinage.  But  there  is  little  doubt  that  Hadden  resented 
them.  He  had  even  risen  from  his  place,  and  the  con- 
ference was  on  the  point  of  breaking  up,  when  a  new 
voice  joined  suddenly  in  the  conversation. 

The  cabman  sat  with  his  back  turned  upon  the  party, 
smoking  a  meerschaum  pipe.  Not  a  word  of  Tommy's 
eloquence  had  missed  him,  and  he  now  faced  suddenly 
about  with  these  amazing  words  :  — 

"  Excuse  me,  gentlemen ;  if  you'll  buy  me  the  ship  I 
want,  I'll  get  you  the  trade  on  credit." 

There  was  a  pause. 

"  Well,  what  do  you  mean  ?  "  gasped  Tommy. 


THE   REMITTANCE  MAN.  457 

"Better  tell  'em  who  I  am,  Billy/'  said  the  cabman. 

"  Think  it  safe,  Joe  ?  "  inquired  Mr.  Bostock, 

"  I'll  take  my  risk  of  it,"  returned  the  cabman. 

"  Gentlemen,"  said  Bostock,  rising  solemnly,  "  let  me 
make  you  acquainted  with  Captain  Wicks  of  the  Grace 
Darling." 

"Yes,  gentlemen,  that  is  what  I  am,"  said  the  cabman. 
"You  know  I've  been  in  trouble;  and  I  don't  deny  but 
what  I  struck  the  blow,  and  where  was  I  to  get  evidence 
of  my  provocation  ?  So  I  turned  to  and  took  a  cab, 
and  I've  driven  one  for  three  year  now  and  nobody 
the  wiser." 

"I  beg  your  pardon,"  said  Carthew,  joining  almost  for 
the  first  time ;  "  I  am  a  new  chum.  What  was  the 
charge  ?  " 

"  Murder,"  said  Captain  Wicks,  "  and  I  don't  deny  but 
what  I  struck  the  blow.  And  there's  no  sense  in  my 
trying  to  deny  I  was  afraid  to  go  to  trial,  or  why  would 
I  be  here  ?  But  it's  a  fact  it  was  flat  mutiny.  Ask 
Billy  here.     He  knows  how  it  was." 

Carthew  breathed  long  ;  he  had  a  strange,  half- 
pleasurable  sense  of  wading  deeper  in  the  tide  of 
life.  "Well?"  said  he,  "you  were  going  on  to 
say  ?  " 

"  I  was  going  on  to  say  this,"  said  the  captain,  sturdily. 
"  I've  overheard  what  Mr.  Hadden  has  been  saying,  and 
I  think  he  talks  good  sense.  I  like  some  of  his  ideas 
first  chop.     He's  sound  on  traderooms  j  he's  all  there  on 


458  THE   WEECKER. 

the  traderoom ;  and  I  see  that  he  and  I  would  pull  to- 
gether. Then  you're  both  gentlemen,  and  I  like  that," 
observed  Captain  Wicks.  "  And  then  I'll  tell  you  I'm 
tired  of  this  cabbing  cruise,  and  I  want  to  get  to  work 
again.  Now  here's  my  offer.  I've  a  little  money  I 
can  stake  up,  —  all  of  a  hundred  anyway.  Then  my 
old  firm  will  give  me  trade,  and  jump  at  the  chance ; 
they  never  lost  by  me ;  they  know  what  I'm  worth  as 
supercargo.  And  last  of  all,  you  want  a  good  captain  to 
sail  your  ship  for  you.  Well,  here  I  am.  I've  sailed 
schooners  for  ten  years.  Ask  Billy  if  I  can  handle  a 
schooner." 

"  No  man  better,"  said  Billy. 

"And  as  for  my  character  as  a  shipmate,"  concluded 
Wicks,  "  go  and  ask  my  old  firm." 

"  But  look  here  ! "  cried  Hadden.  "  How  do  you  mean 
to  manage  ?  You  can  whisk  round  in  a  hansom,  and 
no  questions  asked.  But  if  you  try  to  come  on  a  quarter- 
deck, my  boy,  you'll  get  nabbed." 

"  I'll  have  to  keep  back  till  the  last,"  replied  Wicks, 
"and  take  another  name." 

"  But  how  about  clearing  ?  what  other  name  ?  "  asked 
Tommy,  a  little  bewildered. 

"  I  don't  know  yet,"  returned  the  captain,  with  a  grin. 
"I'll  see  what  the  name  is  on  my  new  certificate,  and 
that'll  be  good  enough  for  me.  If  I  can't  get  one  to 
buy,  though  I  never  heard  of  such  a  thing,  there's  old 
Kirkup,  he's  turned  some  sort  of  farmer  down  Bondi 
way ;  he'll  hire  me  his." 


THE   REMITTANCE   MAN.  459 

"  You  seemed  to  speak  as  if  you  had  a  ship  in  view," 
said  Carthew. 

"  So  I  have,  too,"  said  Captain  Wicks,  "  and  a  beauty. 
Schooner  yacht  Dream;  got  lines  you  never  saw  the 
beat  of;  and  a  witch  to  go.  She  passed  me  once  off 
Thursday  Island,  doing  two  knots  to  my  one  and  laying 
a  point  and  a  half  better ;  and  the  Grace  DaHing  was  a 
ship  that  I  was  proud  of.  I  took  and  tore  my  hair. 
The  Dream's  been  my  dream  ever  since.  That  was  in 
her  old  days,  when  she  carried  a  blue  ens'n.  Grant 
Sanderson  was  the  party  as  owned  her ;  he  was  rich  and 
mad,  and  got  a  fever  at  last  somewhere  about  the  Fly 
Eiver,  and  took  and  died.  The  captain  brought  the  body 
back  to  Sydney,  and  paid  off.  Well,  it  turned  out  Grant 
Sanderson  had  left  any  quantity  of  wills  and  any  quan- 
tity of  widows,  and  no  fellow  could  make  out  which  was 
the  genuine  article.  All  the  widows  brought  lawsuits 
against  all  the  rest,  and  every  will  had  a  firm  of  lawyers 
on  the  quarterdeck  as  long  as  your  arm.  They  tell  me 
it  was  one  of  the  biggest  turns-to  that  ever  was  seen, 
bar  Tichborne ;  the  Lord  Chamberlain  himself  was 
floored,  and  so  was  the  Lord  Chancellor;  and  all  that 
time  the  Dream  lay  rotting  up  by  Glebe  Point.  Well, 
it's  done  now ;  they've  picked  out  a  widow  and  a  will ; 
tossed  up  for  it,  as  like  as  not;  and  the  Dream's  for 
sale.  She'll  go  cheap ;  she's  had  a  long  turn-to  at  rot- 
ting." 

"  What  size  is  she  ?  " 


-iOO  THE   WKECKEK. 

"Well,  big  enough.  We  don't  want  her  bigger.  A 
hundred  and  ninety,  going  two  hundred,"  replied  the 
captain.  "  She's  fully  big  for  us  three ;  it  would  be  all 
the  better  if  we  had  another  hand,  though  it's  a  pity  too, 
when  you  can  pick  up  natives  for  half  nothing.  Then 
we  must  have  a  cook.  I  can  fix  raw  sailor-men,  but 
there's  no  going  to  sea  with  a  new-chum  cook.  I  can 
lay  hands  on  the  man  we  want  for  that :  a  Highway  boy, 
an  old  shipmate  of  mine,  of  the  name  of  Amalu.  Cooks 
first  rate,  and  it's  always  better  to  have  a  native;  he 
aint  fly,  you  can  turn  him  to  as  you  please,  and  he  don't 
know  enough  to  stand  out  for  his  rights." 

From  the  moment  that  Captain  Wicks  joined  in  the 
conversation,  Carthew  recovered  interest  and  confidence ; 
the  man  (whatever  he  might  have  done)  was  plainly 
good-natured,  and  plainly  capable ;  if  he  thought  well  of 
the  enterprise,  offered  to  contribute  money,  brought  ex- 
perience, and  could  thus  solve  at  a  word  the  problem  of 
the  trade,  Carthew  was  content  to  go  ahead.  As  for 
Hadden,  his  cup  was  full ;  he  and  Bostock  forgave  each 
other  in  champagne;  toast  followed  toast;  it  was  pro- 
posed and  carried  amid  acclamation  to  change  the  name 
of  the  schooner  (when  she  should  be  bought)  to  the 
Currency  Lass  ;  and  the  Currency  Lass  Island  Trading 
Company  was  practically  founded  before  dusk. 

Three  (la.ys  later,  Carthew  stood  before  the  lawyer, 
still  in  his  jean  suit,  received  his  hundred  and  fifty 
pounds,  and  proceeded  rather  timidly  to  ask  for  more  in^ 
dulgence. 


THE   REMITTANCE   MAN".  461 

"I  have  a  chance  to  get  on  in  the  worhl,"  he  said. 
"  By  to-morrow  evening  I  expect  to  be  part  owner  of  a 
ship." 

"  Dangerous  property,  Mr.  Carthew,"  said  the  lawyer. 

"  Kot  if  the  partners  work  her  themselves  and  stand 
to  go  down  along  with  her/'  was  the  reply. 

"  I  conceive  it  possible  you  might  make  something  of 
it  that  way,"  returned  the  other.  •'  But  are  you  a  sea- 
man ?  I  thought  you  had  been  in  the  diplomatic  ser- 
vice." 

"  I  am  an  old  yachtsman,"  said  Norris.  "  And  I  must 
do  the  best  I  can.  A  fellow  can't  live  in  New  South 
Wales  upon  diplomacy.  But  the  point  I  wish  to  pre- 
pare you  for  is  this.  It  will  be  impossible  I  should  pre- 
sent myself  here  next  quarter-day ;  we  expect  to  make  a 
six  months'  cruise  of  it  among  the  islands." 

"  Sorry,  Mr.  Carthew :  I  can't  hear  of  that,"  replied  the 
lawyer. 

"  I  mean  upon  the  same  conditions  as  the  last,"  said 
Carthew. 

''  The  conditions  are  exactly  opposite,"  said  the  law- 
yer. "  Last  time  I  had  reason  to  know  you  were  in  the 
colony ;  and  even  then  I  stretched  a  point.  This  time, 
by  your  own  confession,  you  are  contemplating  a  breach 
of  the  agreement ;  and  I  give  you  warning  if  j^ou  carry 
it  out  and  I  receive  proof  of  it  (fori  will  agree  to  regard 
this  conversation  as  confidential)  I  shall  have  no  choice 
but  to  do  my  duty.  Be  here  on  quarter-day,  or  your  al- 
lowance ceases." 


4G2  THE   WEECKER. 

"  This  is  very  hard  and,  I  think,  rather  silly,"  returned 
Carthew. 

"It  is  not  of  my  doing.  I  have  my  instructions," 
said  the  lawyer. 

"And  you  so  read  these  instructions,  that  I  am  to  be 
prohibited  from  making  an  honest  livelihood  ? "  asked 
Carthew. 

"Let  us  be  frank,"  said  the  lawyer.  "I  find  noth- 
ing in  these  instructions  about  an  honest  livelihood.  I 
have  no  reason  to  suppose  my  clients  care  anything 
about  that.  I  have  reason  to  suppose  only  one  thing, 
—  that  they  mean  you  shall  stay  in  this  colony,  and  to 
guess  another,  Mr.  Carthew.     And  to  guess  another." 

"  What  do  you  mean  by  that  ?  "  asked  Norris. 

"  I  mean  that  I  imagine,  on  very  strong  gi-ounds,  that 
your  family  desire  to  see  no  more  of  you,"  said  the  law- 
yer. "  0,  they  may  be  very  wrong ;  but  that  is  the  im- 
pression conveyed,  that  is  what  I  suppose  I  am  paid  to 
bring  about,  and  I  have  no  choice  but  to  try  and  earn  my 
hire." 

"I  would  scorn  to  deceive  you,"  said  Norris,  with  a 
strong  flush,  "you  have  guessed  rightly.  My  family  re- 
fuse to  see  me ;  but  I  am  not  going  to  England,  I  am  go- 
ing to  the  islands.     How  does  that  affect  the  islands  ?  " 

"Ah,  but  I  don't  know  that  you  are  going  to  the 
islands,"  said  the  lawyer,  looking  down,  and  spearing 
the  blotting-paper  with  a  pencil. 

"  I  beg  your  pardon.  I  have  the  pleasure  of  inform- 
ing you,"  said  Norris. 


THE   REMITTANCE   MAN.  463 

"  I  am  afraid,  Mr.  Carthew,  that  T  cannot  regard  that 
eomraunication  as  official,"  was  the  slow  reply. 

"  I  am  not  accustomed  to  have  my  word  doubted ! " 
cried  Norris. 

"  Hush !  I  allow  no  one  to  raise  his  voice  in  my 
office,"  said  the  lawyer.  "  And  for  that  matter  —  you 
seem  to  be  a  young  gentleman  of  sense  —  consider  what 
I  know  of  you.  You  are  a  discarded  son  ;  your  family 
pays  money  to  be  shut  of  you.  What  have  you  done  ? 
I  don't  know.  But  do  you  not  see  how  foolish  I  should 
be,  if  I  exposed  my  business  reputation  on  the  safe- 
guard of  the  honour  of  a  gentleman  of  whom  I  know 
just  so  much  and  no  more  ?  This  interview  is  very 
disagreeable.  Why  prolong  it  ?  Write  home,  get  my 
instructions  changed,  and  I  will  change  my  behaviour. 
Not  otherwise." 

"I  am  very  fond  of  three  hundred  a  year,"  said 
Norris,  "but  I  cannot  pay  the  price  required.  I  shall 
not  have  the  pleasure  of  seeing  you  again." 

"  You  must  please  yourself,"  said  the  lawyer.  "  Fail 
to  be  here  next  quarter-day,  and  the  thing  stops.  But  I 
warn  you,  and  I  mean  the  warning  in  a  friendly  spirit. 
Three  months  later  you  will  be  here  begging,  and  I  shall 
have  no  choice  but  to  show  you  in  the  street." 

"I  wish  you  a  good-evening,"  said  Norris. 

"The  same  to  you,  Mr.  Carthew,"  retorted  the  lawyer, 
and  rang  for  his  clerk. 

So  it  befell  that  Norris  during  what  remained  to  him 


■iS4  THE   WRECKER. 

of  arduous  days  in  Sydney,  saw  not  again  the  face  of  his 
legal  adviser;  and  he  tvas  already  at  sea,  and  land  was 
out  of  sight,  when  Hadden  brought  him  a  Sydney  paper, 
over  which  he  had  been  dozing  in  the  shadow  of  the 
galley,  and  showed  him  an  advertisement. 

"Mr.  Norris  Carthew  is  earnestly  entreated  to  call 
without  delay  at  the  office  of  Mr.  — ,  where  important 
intelligence  awaits  him." 

"  It  must  manage  to  wait  for  me  six  months,"  said 
Norris,  lightly  enough,  but  yet  conscious  of  a  pang  of 
curiosity. 


THE  BUDGET  OF  THE  "CUEKENCY  LASS."   4Co 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 

THE  BUDGET  OF  THE  "CURRENCY  LASS." 

Before  noon  on  the  2Gth  November,  there  cleared  from 
the  port  of  Sydney  the  schooner,  Currency  Lass.  The 
owner,  Norris  Carthew,  was  on  board  in  the  somewhat 
unusual  position  of  mate ;  the  master's  name  purported 
to  be  William  Kirkup;  the  cook  was  a  Hawaiian  boy, 
Joseph  Amalu;  and  there  were  two  hands  before  the 
mast,  Thomas  Hadden  and  Richard  Hemstead,  the  lat- 
ter chosen  partly  because  of  his  humble  character, 
partly  because  he  had  an  odd- job-man's  handiness  with 
tools.  The  Currency  Lass  was  bound  for  the  South 
Sea  Islands,  and  first  of  all  for  Butaritari  in  the  Gil- 
berts, on  a  register ;  but  it  was  understood  about  the 
harbour  that  her  cruise  was  more  than  half  a  pleasure 
trip.  A  friend  of  the  late  Grant  Sanderson  (of  Auchen- 
troon  and  Kilclarty)  might  have  recognised  in  that  tali- 
masted  ship,  the  transformed  and  rechristened  Dream ; 
and  a  Lloyd's  surveyor,  had  the  services  of  such  an  one 
been  called  in  requisition,  must  have  found  abundant 
subject  of  remark. 

For  time,  during  her  three  years'  inaction,  had  eaten 
deep  into  the  Dream  and  her  fittings ;  she  had  sold  iu 
consequence  a  shade  above  her  value  as  old  junk;  and 


466  THE    WRECKER. 

the  three  adventurers  had  scarce  been  able  to  afford  even 
the  most  vital  repairs.  The  rigging,  indeed,  had  been 
partly  renewed,  and  the  rest  set  up ;  all  Grant  Sander- 
son's old  canvas  had  been  patched  together  into  one 
decently  serviceable  suit  of  sails ;  Grant  Sanderson's 
masts  still  stood,  and  might  have  wondered  at  them- 
selves. "I  haven't  the  heart  to  tap  them,"  Captain 
Wicks  used  to  observe,  as  he  squinted  up  their  height 
or  patted  their  rotundity;  and  ''as  rotten  as  our  fore- 
mast "  was  an  accepted  metaphor  in  the  ship's  company. 
The  sequel  rather  suggests  it  may  have  been  sounder  than 
was  thought;  but  no  one  knew  for  certain,  just  as  no  one 
except  the  captain  appreciated  the  dangers  of  the  cruise. 
The  captain,  indeed,  saw  with  clear  eyes  and  spoke  his 
mind  aloud ;  and  though  a  man  of  an  astonishing  hot- 
blooded  courage,  following  life  and  taking  its  dangers  in 
the  spirit  of  a  hound  upon  the  slot,  he  had  made  a  point 
of  a  big  whaleboat.  "  Take  your  choice,"  he  had  said ; 
"  either  new  masts  and  rigging  or  that  boat.  I  simply 
ain't  going  to  sea  without  the  one  or  the  other.  Chicken 
coops  are  good  enough,  no  doubt,  and  so  is  a  dinghy; 
but  they  ain't  for  Joe."  And  his  partners  had  been 
forced  to  consent,  and  saw  six  and  thirty  pounds  of  their 
small  capital  vanish  in  the  turn  of  a  hand. 

All  four  had  toiled  the  best  part  of  six  weeks  getting 
ready;  and  though  Captain  Wicks  was  of  course  not 
seen  or  heard  of,  a  fifth  was  there  to  help  them,  a  fellow 
in  a  bushy  red  beard,  which  he  would  sometimes  lay 


THE  BUDGET  OF  THE  "CURRENCY  LASS."   467 

aside  when  he  was  below,  and  who  strikingly  resembled 
Captain  Wicks  in  voice  and  character.  As  for  Captain 
Kirkup,  he  did  not  appear  till  the  last  moment,  when  he 
proved  to  be  a  burly  mariner,  bearded  like  Abou  Ben 
Adhem.  All  the  way  down  the  harbour  and  through  the 
Heads,  his  milk-white  whiskers  blew  in  the  wind  and 
were  conspicuous  from  shore ;  but  the  Ciirreyicy  Lass  had 
no  sooner  turned  her  back  upon  the  lighthouse,  than  he 
went  below  for  the  inside  of  five  seconds  and  reappeared 
clean  shaven.  So  many  doublings  and  devices  were 
required  to  get  to  sea  with  an  unseaworthy  ship  and  a 
captain  that  was  "  wanted."  Nor  might  even  these  have 
sufficed,  but  for  the  fact  that  Hadden  was  a  public  char- 
acter, and  the  whole  cruise  regarded  with  an  eye  of  indul- 
gence as  one  of  Tom's  engaging  eccentricities.  The 
ship,  besides,  had  been  a  yacht  before ;  and  it  came  the 
more  natural  to  allow  her  still  some  of  the  dangerous 
'liberties  of  her  old  employment. 

A  strange  ship  they  had  made  of  it,  her  lofty  spars 
disfigured  with  patched  canvas,  her  panelled  cabin  fitted 
for  a  traderoom  with  rude  shelves.  And  the  life  they 
led  in  that  anomalous  schooner  was  no  less  curious  than 
herself.  Amalu  alone  berthed  forward;  the  rest  occupied 
staterooms,  camped  upon  the  satin  divans,  and  sat  down 
in  Grant  Sanderson's  parquetry  smoking-room  to  meals 
of  junk  and  potatoes,  bad  of  their  kind  and  often  scant 
in  quantity.  Hemstead  grumbled;  Tommy  had  occasional 
moments  of  revolt  and  increased  the  ordinary  by  a  few 


4G8  THE   WRECKER. 

haphazard  tins  or  a  bottle  of  his  own  brown  sherry. 
But  Hemstead  grumbled  from  habit,  Tommy  revolted 
only  for  the  moment,  and  there  was  underneath  a  real 
and  general  acquiescence  in  these  hardships.  For  be- 
sides onions  and  potatoes,  the  Currency  Lass  may  be 
said  to  have  gone  to  sea  without  stores.  She  carried  two 
thousand  pounds'  worth  of  assorted  trade,  advanced  on 
credit,  their  whole  hope  and  fortune.  It  was  upon  this 
that  they  subsisted  —  mice  in  their  own  granary.  They 
dined  upon  their  future  profits ;  and  every  scanty  meal 
was  so  much  in  the  savings  bank. 

Eepublican  as  were  their  manners,  there  was  no  prac- 
tical, at  least  no  dangerous,  lack  of  discipline.  Wicks 
was  the  only  sailor  on  board,  there  was  none  to  criticise ; 
and  besides,  he  was  so  easy-going,  and  so  merry-minded, 
that  none  could  bear  to  disappoint  him.  Carthew  did 
his  best,  partly  for  the  love  of  doing  it,  partly  for  love 
of  the  captain ;  Amalu  was  a  willing  drudge,  and  even 
Hemstead  and  Hadden  turned  to  upon  occasion  with 
a  will.  Tommy's  department  was  the  trade  and  trade- 
room  ;  he  would  work  down  in  the  hold  or  over  the 
shelves  of  the  cabin,  till  the  Sydney  dandy  was  unrecog- 
nizable ;  come  up  at  last,  draw  a  bucket  of  sea-water, 
bathe,  change,  and  lie  down  on  deck  over  a  big  sheaf  of 
Sydney  Heralds  and  Dead  Birds,  or  perhaps  with  a  vol- 
ume of  Buckle's  History  of  Civilisation,  the  standard 
work  selected  for  that  cruise.  In  the  latter  case,  a 
smile  went  round  the  ship,  for  Buckle  almost  invariably 


THE  BUDGET  OF  THE  "CURRENCY  LASS."   469 

laid  his  student  out,  and  when  Tom  awoke  again  he  was 
almost  always  in  the  humour  for  brown  sherry.  The 
connection  was  so  well  established  that  "a  glass  of 
Buckle"  or  "a  bottle  of  civilisation"  became  current 
pleasantries  on  board  the  Currency  Lass. 

Hemstead's  province  was  that  of  the  repairs,  and  he 
had  his  hands  fulL  Nothing  on  board  but  was  decayed 
in  a  proportion ;  the  lamps  leaked ;  so  did  the  decks ; 
door-knobs  came  off  in  the  hand,  mouldings  parted  com- 
pany with  the  panels,  the  pump  declined  to  suck,  and 
the  defective  bathroom  came  near  to  swamp  the  ship. 
Wicks  insisted  that  all  the  nails  were  long  ago  con- 
sumed, and  that  she  was  only  glued  together  by  the 
rust.  "  You  shouldn't  make  me  laugh  so  much,  Tommy," 
he  would  say.  "  I'm  afraid  I'll  shake  the  sternpost  out 
of  her."  And,  as  Hemstead  went  to  and  fro  with  his 
tool  basket  on  an  endless  round  of  tinkering,  Wicks  lost 
no  opportunity  of  chaffing  him  upon  his  duties.  "If 
you'd  turn  to  at  sailoring  or  washing  paint  or  something 
useful,  now,"  he  would  say,  "  I  could  see  the  fun  of  it. 
But  to  be  mending  things  that  haven't  no  msides  to 
them,  appears  to  me  the  height  of  foolishness."  And 
doubtless  these  continual  pleasantries  helped  to  reassure 
the  landsmen,  who  went  to  and  fro  unmoved,  under  cir- 
cumstances that  might  have  daunted  Nelson. 

The  weather  was  from  the  outset  splendid,  and  the 
wind  fair  and  steady.  The  ship  sailed  like  a  witch. 
"This  Currency  Lass  is   a   powerful  old  girl,  and  has 


470  THE   WIIECKER. 

more  complaints  than  I  would  care  to  put  a  name  on," 
the  captain  would  say,  as  he  pricked  the  chart ;  "  but 
she  could  show  her  blooming  heels  to  anything  of  her 
size  in  the  Western  Pacific."  To  wash  decks,  relieve  the 
wheel,  do  the  day's  work  after  dinner  on  the  smoking- 
room  table,  and  take  in  kites  at  night,  —  such  was  the 
easy  routine  of  their  life.  In  the  evening  —  above  all,  if 
Tommy  had  produced  some  of  his  civilisation  —  yarns 
and  music  were  the  rule.  Amalu  had  a  sweet  Hawaiian 
voice ;  and  Hemstead,  a  great  hand  upon  the  banjo, 
accompanied  his  own  quavering  tenor  with  effect.  There 
was  a  sense  in  which  the  little  man  could  sing.  It  was 
great  to  hear  him  deliver  My  Boy  Tammie  in  Austrylian; 
and  the  words  (some  of  the  worst  of  the  ruffian  Mac- 
neil's)  were  hailed  in  his  version  with  inextinguishable 
mirth. 

"Where  hye  ye  been  a'  dye  ? 

he  would  ask,  and  answer  himself :  — 

I've  been  by  burn  and  flowery  brye, 
Meadow  green  an'  mountain  grye, 
Courtin'  o'  this  young  thing, 
Just  come  frye  her  mammie. 

It  was  the  accepted  jest  for  all  hands  to  greet  the  con- 
clusion of  this  song  with  the  simultaneous  cry :  "  My 
word ! "  thus  winging  the  arrow  of  ridicule  with  a 
feather  from  the  singer's  wing.  But  he  had  his  revenge 
with  Home,  Siveet  Home,  and  Where  is  my  Wandering 
Boy  To-night  f  —  ditties  into  which  he  threw  the  most 


THE  BUDGET   OF  THE   "  CUlillENCY   LASS."      471 

intolerable  pathos.  It  appeared  he  had  no  home,  nor 
had  ever  had  one,  nor  yet  any  vestige  of  a  family,  except 
a  truculent  uncle,  a  baker  in  Newcastle,  N.S.W.  His 
domestic  sentiment  was  therefore  wholly  in  the  air,  and 
expressed  an  unrealised  ideal.  Or  perhaps,  of  all  his 
experiences,  this  of  the  Currency  Lass,  with  its  kindly, 
playful,  and  tolerant  society,  ajDproached  it  the  most 
nearly. 

It  is  perhaps  because  I  know  the  sequel,  but  I  can 
never  think  upon  this  voyage  without  a  profound  sense 
of  pity  and  mystery ;  of  the  ship  (once  the  whim  of  a 
rich  blackguard)  faring  with  her  battered  fineries  and 
upon  her  homely  errand,  across  the  plains  of  ocean,  and 
past  the  gorgeous  scenery  of  dawn  and  sunset ;  and  the 
ship's  company,  so  strangely  assembled,  so  Britishly 
chuckle-headed,  filling  their  days  with  chaff  in  place  of 
conversation;  no  human  book  on  board  with  them  except 
Hadden's  Buckle,  and  not  a  creature  fit  either  to  read 
or  to  understand  it ;  and  the  one  mark  of  any  civilised 
interest,  being  when  Carthew  filled  in  his  spare  hours 
with  the  pencil  and  the  brush :  the  whole  unconscious 
crew  of  them  posting  in  the  meanwhile  towards  so  tragic 
a  disaster. 

Twenty-eight  days  out  of  Sydney,  on  Christmas  eve, 
they  fetched  up  to  the  entrance  of  the  lagoon,  and  plied 
all  that  night  outside,  keeping  their  position  by  the 
lights  of  fishers  on  the  reef  and  the  outlines  of  the 
palms  against  the  cloudy  sky.     With  the  break  of  day, 


472  THE   WRECKER. 

the  schooner  was  hove  to,  and  the  signal  for  a  pilot 
shown.  But  it  was  plain  her  lights  must  have  been 
observed  in  the  darkness  by  the  native  fishermen,  and 
word  carried  to  the  settlement,  for  a  boat  was  already 
under  way.  She  came  towards  them  across  the  lagoon 
under  a  great  press  of  sail,  lying  dangerously  down,  so 
that  at  times,  in  the  heavier  puffs,  they  thought  she 
would  turn  turtle ;  covered  the  distance  in  fine  stjde, 
luffed  up  smartly  alongside,  and  emitted  a  haggard  look- 
ing white  man  in  pyjamas. 

"  Good-mornin',  Cap'n,"  said  he,  when  he  had  made 
good  his  entrance.  "  I  was  taking  you  for  a  Fiji  man-of- 
war,  what  with  your  flush  decks  and  them  spars.  Well, 
gen'lemen  all,  here's  wishing  you  a  Merry  Christmas  and 
a  Happy  Xew  Year,"  he  added,  and  lurched  against  a 
stay. 

"Why,  you're  never  the  pilot?"  exclaimed  Wicks, 
studying  him  with  a  profound  disfavour.  "You've 
n-ever  taken  a  ship  in  —  don't  tell  me  ! " 

"Well,  I  should  guess  I  have,"  returned  the  pilot. 
"  I'm  Captain  Dobbs,  I  am ;  and  when  I  take  charge,  the 
captain  of  that  ship  can  go  below  and  shave." 

"  But,  man  alive !  you're  drunk,  man  ! "  cried  the  cap- 
tain. 

"Drunk!"  repeated  Dobbs.  "You  can't  have  seen 
much  life  if  you  call  me  drunk.  I'm  only  just  begin- 
ning. Come  night,  I  won't  say  ;  I  guess  I'll  be  properly 
full  by  then.  But  now  I'm  the  soberest  man  in  all  Big 
Muggin." 


THE  BUDGET  OF  THE  "  CUKKENCY  LASS."  41  o 

"  It  won't  do,"  retorted  Wicks,  "  Not  for  Joseph,  sir. 
I  can't  have  you  piling  up  my  schooner." 

"  All  right,"  said  Dobbs,  "  lay  and  rot  where  you  are, 
or  take  and  go  in  and  pile  her  up  for  yourself  like  the 
captain  of  the  Leslie.  That's  business,  I  guess ;  grudged 
me  twenty  dollars'  pilotage,  and  lost  twenty  thousand  in 
trade  and  a  brand  new  schooner ;  ripped  the  keel  right 
off  of  her,  and  she  went  down  in  the  inside  of  four  min- 
utes, and  lies  in  twenty  fathom,  trade  and  all." 

"What's  all  this?"  cried  Wicks.  "Trade?  What 
vessel  was  this  Leslie,  anyhow  ?  " 

"  Consigned  to  Cohen  and  Co.,  from  'Frisco,"  returned 
the  pilot,  "and  badly  wanted.  There's  a  barque  inside 
filling  up  for  Hamburg  —  you  see  her  spars  over  there; 
and  there's  two  more  ships  due,  all  the  way  from  Ger- 
many, one  in  two  months,  they  say,  and  one  in  three ; 
and  Cohen  and  Co.'s  agent  (that's  Mr.  Topelius)  has 
taken  and  lain  down  with  the  jaundice  on  the  strength 
of  it.  I  guess  most  people  would,  in  his  shoes ;  no 
trade,  no  copra,  and  twenty  hundred  ton  of  shipping  due. 
If  you've  any  copra  on  board,  Cap'n,  here's  your  chance. 
Topelius  will  buy,  gold  down,  and  give  three  cents.  It's 
all  found  money  to  him,  the  way  it  is,  whatever  he  pays 
for  it.  And  that's  what  come  of  going  back  on  the 
pilot." 

"Excuse  me  one  moment,  Captain  Dobbs.  I  wish  to 
speak  with  my  mate,"  said  the  captain,  whose  face  had 
begun  to  shine  and  his  eyes  to  sparkle. 


474  THE   WllECKER. 

"Please  yourself,"  replied  the  pilot.  "You  couldn't 
think  of  offering  a  man  a  nip,  could  you  ?  just  to  brace 
him  up.  This  kind  of  thing  looks  damned  inhospitable, 
and  gives  a  schooner  a  bad  name." 

"I'll  talk  about  that  after  the  anchor's  down,"  re- 
turned Wicks,  and  he  drew  Carthew  forward.  "  I  say," 
he  whispered,  "  here's  a  fortune." 

"  How  much  do  you  call  that  ?  "  asked  Carthew. 

"  I  can't  put  a  figure  on  it  yet  —  I  daren't ! "  said  the 
captain.  "  We  might  cruise  twenty  years  and  not  find 
the  match  of  it.  And  suppose  another  ship  came  in 
to-night  ?  Everything's  possible !  And  the  difficulty  is 
this  Dobbs.  He's  as  drunk  as  a  marine.  How  can  we 
trust  him  ?     We  ain't  insured,  worse  luck ! " 

"  Suppose  you  took  him  aloft  and  got  him  to  point  out 
the  channel  ?  "  suggested  Carthew.  "  If  he  tallied  at  all 
with  the  chart,  and  didn't  fall  out  of  the  rigging,  per- 
haps we  might  risk  it." 

"  Well,  all's  risk  here,"  returned  the  captain.  "  Take 
the  wheel  yourself,  and  stand  by.  Mind,  if  there's  two 
orders,  follow  mine,  not  his.  Set  the  cook  for'ard  with 
the  heads'ls,  and  the  two  others  at  the  main  sheet,  and 
see  they  don't  sit  on  it."  With  that  he  called  the  pilot ; 
they  swarmed  aloft  in  the  fore  rigging,  and  presently 
after  there  was  bawled  down  the  welcome  order  to  ease 
sheets  and  fill  away. 

At  a  quarter  before  nine  o'clock  on  Christmas  morn- 
ing, the  anchor  was  let  go. 


THE  BUDGET  OF  THE  "CURRENCY  LASS."   475 

The  first  cruise  of  the  Currency  Lass  had  thus  ended 
in  a  stroke  of  fortune  almost  beyond  hope.  She  had 
brought  two  thousand  pounds'  worth  of  trade,  straight 
as  a  homing  pigeon,  to  the  place  where  it  was  most 
required.  And  Captain  Wicks  (or,  rather,  Captain 
Kirkup)  showed  himself  the  man  to  make  the  best  of 
his  advantage.  For  hard  upon  two  days  he  walked  a 
verandah  with  Topelius ;  for  hard  upon  two  days  his 
partners  watched  from  the  neighbouring  public  house 
the  field  of  battle  ;  and  the  lamps  were  not  yet  lighted  on 
the  evening  of  the  second  before  the  enemy  surrendered. 
Wicks  came  across  to  the  Sans  Souci,  as  the  saloon  was 
called,  his  face  nigh  black,  his  eyes  almost  closed  and  all 
bloodshot,  and  yet  bright  as  lighted  matches. 

"Come  out  here,  boys,"  he  said;  and  when  they  were 
some  way  off  among  the  palms,  "  I  hold  twenty-four," 
he  added,  in  a  voice  scarce  recognizable,  and  doubtless 
referring  to  the  venerable  game  of  cribbage. 

"  What  do  you  mean  ?  "  asked  Tommy. 

"I've  sold  the  trade,"  answered  Wicks;  "or,  rather, 
I've  sold  only  some  of  it,  for  I  kept  back  all  the  mess 
beef  and  half  the  flour  and  biscuit ;  and,  by  God,  we're 
still  provisioned  for  four  months  !  By  God,  it's  as  good 
as  stolen ! " 

"  My  word  !  "  cried  Herastead. 

"  But  what  have  you  sold  it  for  ?  "  gasped  Carthew, 
the  captain's  almost  insane  excitement  shaking  his 
nerve. 


4TG  THE    WIIRCKEU. 

"Let  me  tell  it  my  own  way,"  cried  Wicks,  loosening 
his  neck.  "Let  me  get  at  it  gradual,  or  I'll  explode. 
I'v^e  not  only  sold  it,  boys,  I've  wrung  out  a  charter  on 
my  own  terms  to  'Frisco  and  back ;  on  my  own  terms. 
I  made  a  point  of  it.  I  fooled  him  first  by  making  be- 
lieve I  wanted  copra,  which  of  course  I  knew  he  wouldn't 
hear  of — couldn't,  in  fact;  and  whenever  he  showed 
fight,  I  trotted  out  the  copra,  and  that  man  dived !  I 
would  take  nothing  but  copra,  you  see ;  and  so  I've  got 
the  blooming  lot  in  specie  —  all  but  two  short  bills  on 
'Frisco.  And  the  sum?  Well,  this  whole  adventure, 
including  two  thousand  pounds  of  credit,  cost  us  two 
thousand  seven  hundred  and  some  odd.  That's  all  paid 
back ;  in  thirty  days'  cruise  we've  paid  for  the  schooner 
and  the  trade.  Heard  ever  any  man  the  match  of  that? 
And  it's  not  all !  For  besides  that,"  said  the  captain, 
hammering  his  words,  "we've  got  Thirteen  Blooming 
Hundred  Pounds  of  profit  to  divide.  I  bled  him  in  four 
Thou. ! "  he  cried,  in  a  voice  that  broke  like  a  schoolboy's. 

For  a  moment  the  partners  looked  upon  their  chief 
with  stupefaction,  incredulous  surprise  their  only  feel- 
ing.    Tommy  was  the  first  to  grasp  the  consequences. 

"Here!"  he  said,  in  a  hard,  business  tone.  "Come 
back  to  that  saloon.     I've  got  to  get  drunk." 

"  You  must  please  excuse  me,  boys,"  said  the  captain, 
earnestly.  "I  daren't  taste  nothing.  If  I  was  to  drink 
one  glass  of  beer,  it's  my  belief  I'd  have  the  apoplexy. 
The  last  scrimmnge,  and  the  blooming  triumph,  pretty 
nigh  hand  done  me." 


THE   BUDGET   OF    THK    "CURRENCY   LASS."       477 

"  Well,  then,  three  cheers  for  the  captain  ! "  proposed 
Tommy. 

But  Wicks  held  up  a  shaking  hand.  "  Not  that  either, 
boys,"  he  pleaded.  "  Think  of  the  other  buffer,  and  let 
him  down  easy.  If  I'm  like  this,  just  fancy  what 
Topelius  is  !  If  he  heard  us  singing  out,  he'd  have  the 
staggers." 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  Topelius  accepted  his  defeat  with 
a  good  grace  ;  but  the  crew  of  the  wrecked  Leslie,  who 
were  in  the  same  employment  and  loyal  to  their  firm, 
took  the  thing  more  bitterly.  Eough  words  and  ugly 
looks  were  common.  Once  even  they  hooted  Captain 
Wicks  from  the  saloon  verandah  5  the  Currency  Lasses 
drew  out  on  the  other  side ;  for  some  minutes  there  had 
like  to  have  been  a  battle  in  Butaritari ;  and  though  the 
occasion  passed  off  without  blows,  it  left  on  either  side 
an  increase  of  ill-feeling. 

No  such  small  matter  could  affect  the  happiness  of 
the  successful  traders.  Five  days  more  the  ship  lay  in 
the  lagoon,  with  little  employment  for  any  one  but 
Tommy  and  the  captain  —  for  Topelius's  natives  dis- 
charged cargo  and  brought  ballast ;  the  time  passed  like 
a  pleasant  dream ;  the  adventurers  sat  up  half  the  night 
debating  and  praising  their  good  fortune,  or  straj'ed  by 
day  in  the  narrow  isle,  gaping  like  Cockney  tourists  ; 
and  on  the  first  of  the  new  year,  the  Curroicy  Lass 
weighed  anchor  for  the  second  time  and  set  sail  for 
'Frisco,  attended  by  the  same  fine  v;eather  and  good  luck. 


478  THE   WIlECKER. 

She  crossed  the  doldrums  with  but  small  delay;  on  a 
wind  and  in  ballast  of  broken  coral,  she  outdid  expecta- 
tions ;  and  what  added  to  the  happiness  of  the  ship's 
company,  the  small  amount  of  work  that  fell  on  them  to 
do,  was  now  lessened  by  the  presence  of  another  hand. 
This  was  the  boatswain  of  the  Leslie  ;  he  had  been  on  bad 
terms  with  his  own  captain,  had  already  spent  his  wages 
in  the  saloons  of  Butaritari,  had  wearied  of  the  place, 
and  while  all  his  shipmates  coldly  refused  to  set  foot  on 
board  the  Currency  Lass,  he  had  offered  to  work  his 
passage  to  the  coast.  He  was  a  north  of  Ireland  man, 
between  Scotch  and  Irish,  rough,  loud,  humorous,  and 
emotional,  not  without  sterling  qualities,  and  an  expert 
and  careful  sailor.  His  frame  of  mind  was  different 
indeed  from  that  of  his  new  shipmates ;  instead  of  mak- 
ing an  unexpected  fortune,  he  had  lost  a  berth ;  and  he 
was  besides  disgusted  with  the  rations,  and  really 
appalled  at  the  condition  of  the  schooner.  A  stateroom 
door  had  stuck,  the  first  day  at  sea,  and  Mac  (as  they 
called  him)  laid  his  strength  to  it  and  plucked  it  from 
the  hinges. 

"  Glorj' ! "  said  he,  "  this  ship's  rotten." 

"  I  believe  you,  my  boy,"  said  Captain  Wicks. 

The  next  day  the  sailor  was  observed  with  his  nose 
aloft. 

"Don't  you  get  looking  at  these  sticks,"  the  captain 
said,  "  or  you'll  have  a  fit  and  fall  overboard." 

IMac  turned  towards  the  speaker  with  rather  a  wild 


THE   BUDGET   OF   THE    "CURRENCY   LASS."       479 

eye.  "  Why,  I  see  what  looks  like  a  patch  of  dry  rot  up 
yonder,  that  I  bet  I  could  stick  my  fist  into,"  said  he. 

"  Looks  as  if  a  fellow  could  stick  his  head  into  it,  don't 
it  ?  "  returned  Wicks.  "  But  there's  no  good  prying  into 
things  that  can't  be  mended." 

''I  think  I  was  a  Currency  Ass  to  come  on  board  of 
her ! "  reflected  Mac. 

"Well,  I  never  said  she  was  seaworthy,"  replied  the 
captain :  "  I  only  said  she  could  show  her  blooming  heels 
to  anything  afloat.  And  besides,  I  don't  know  that  it's 
dry  rot ;  I  kind  of  sometimes  hope  it  isn't.  Here ;  turn 
to  and  heave  the  log ;  that'll  cheer  you  up." 

"Well,  there's  no  denying  it,  you're  a  holy  captain," 
said  Mac. 

And  from  that  day  on,  he  made  but  the  one  reference 
to  the  ship's  condition ;  and  that  was  whenever  Tommy 
drew  upon  his  cellar.  '-'Here's  to  the  junk  trade!"  he 
would  say,  as  he  held  out  his  can  of  sherry. 

"  Why  do  you  always  say  that  ?  "  asked  Tommy. 

"I  had  an  uncle  in  the  business,"  replied  Mac,  and 
launched  at  once  into  a  yarn,  in  which  an  incredible 
number  of  the  characters  were  "laid  out  as  nice  as 
you  would  want  to  see,"  and  the  oaths  made  up  about 
two-fifths  of  every  conversation. 

Only  once  he  gave  them  a  taste  of  his  violence  ;  he 
talked  of  it,  indeed,  often ;  "  I'm  rather  a  voilent 
man,"  he  Avould  say,  not  without  pride ;  but  this  was  the 
only  specimen.      Of  a  sudden,  he  turned  on  Hemstead  iu 


480  THE   WRECKER. 

the  ship's  waist,  knocked  him  against  the  foresail  boom, 
then  knocked  him  under  it,  and  had  set  him  up  and 
knocked  him  down  once  more,  before  any  one  had  drawn 
a  breath. 

"Here!  Belay  that!"  roared  Wicks,  leaping  to  his 
feet.     "  I  won't  have  none  of  this." 

Mac  turned  to  the  captain  with  ready  civility.  "I 
only  want  to  learn  him  manners,"  said  he.  "He  took 
and  called  me  Irishman." 

"  Did  he  ?  "  said  Wicks.  "  0,  that's  a  different  story  I 
What  made  you  do  it,  you  tomfool  ?  You  ain't  big 
enough  to  call  any  man  that." 

"I  didn't  call  him  it,"  spluttered  Hemstead,  through 
his  blood  and  tears.     "  I  only  mentioned-like  he  was." 

"  Well,  let's  have  no  more  of  it,"  said  Wicks. 

"But  you  are  Irish,  aint  you  ?  "  Carthew  asked  of  his 
new  shipmate  shortly  after. 

"  I  may  be,"  replied  Mac,  "  but  I'll  allow  no  Sydney 
duck  to  call  me  so.  Xo,"  he  added,  with  a  sudden  heated 
countenance,  "  nor  any  Britisher  that  walks !  Why, 
look  here,"  he  went  on,  "you're  a  young  swell,  aren't 
you  ?  Suppose  I  called  you  that !  '  I'll  show  you,'  you 
would  say,  and  turn  to  and  take  it  out  of  me  straight." 

On  the  28th  of  January,  when  in  lat.  27°  20'  N.,  long. 
177°  W.,  the  wind  chopped  suddenly  into  the  west,  not 
very  strong,  but  pniiy  and  with  flaws  of  rain.  The  cap- 
tain, eager  for  easting,  made  a  fair  wind  of  it  and  guyed 
thu  bourns  out  wing  and  wing.     It  was  Tommy's  trick  at 


THE   BUDGET   OF   THE    "CURRENCY   LASS."       481 

the  wheel,  and  as  it  was  within  half  an  hour  of  the 
relief  (seven  thirty  in  the  morning),  the  captain  judged 
it  not  worth  while  to  change  him. 

The  puffs  were  heavy  but  short ;  there  was  nothing  to 
be  called  a  squall,  no  danger  to  the  ship,  and  scarce  mor»; 
than  usual  to  the  doubtful  spars.  All  hands  were  en 
deck  in  their  oilskins,  expecting  breakfast;  the  galley 
smoked,  the  ship  smelt  of  coffee,  all  were  in  good  humour 
to  be  speeding  eastward  a  full  nine ;  when  the  rotten  fore- 
sail tore  suddenly  between  two  cloths  and  then  split  to 
either  hand.  It  was  for  all  the  world  as  though  some 
archangel  with  a  huge  sword  had  slashed  it  with  the 
figure  of  a  cross  ;  all  hands  ran  to  secure  the  slatting 
canvas ;  and  in  the  sudden  uproar  and  alert,  Tcmmy 
Hadden  lost  his  head.  Many  of  his  days  have  been 
passed  since  then  in  explaining  how  the  thing  happened ; 
of  these  explanations  it  will  be  sufficient  to  say  that  they 
were  all  different  and  none  satisfactory  ;  and  the  gross  fact 
remains  that  the  main  boom  gybed,  carried  away  the 
tackle,  broke  the  mainmast  some  three  feet  above  the 
deck  and  whipped  it  overboard.  For  near  a  minute 
the  suspected  foremast  gallantly  resisted ;  then  followed 
its  companion  ;  and  by  the  time  the  wreck  was  cleared, 
of  the  whole  beautiful  fabric  that  enabled  them  to  skim 
the  seas,  two  ragged  stumps  remained. 

In  these  vast  and  solitary  waters,  to  be  dismasted  is 
perhaps  the  worst  calamit3^  Let  the  ship  turn  turtle 
and  go  down,  and  at  least  the  pang  is  over.     But  men 


482  THE   WRECKER. 

chained  on  a  hulk  may  pass  months  scanning  the  empty 
sea  line  and  counting  the  steps  of  death's  invisible  ap- 
proach. There  is  no  help  but  in  the  boats,  and  what 
a  help  is  that !  There  heaved  the  Currency  Lass,  for 
instance,  a  wingless  lump,  and  the  nearest  human  coast 
(that  of  Kauai  in  the  Sandwiches)  lay  about  a  thousand 
miles  to  south  and  east  of  her.  Over  the  way  there,  to 
men  contemplating  that  passage  in  an  open  boat,  all 
kinds  of  misery,  and  the  fear  of  death  and  of  madness, 
brooded. 

A  serious  company  sat  down  to  breakfast;  but  the 
captain  helped  his  neighbours  with  a  smile. 

"Now,  boys,"  he  said,  after  a  pull  at  the  hot  coffee, 
"we're  done  with  this  Currency  Lass,  and  no  mistake. 
One  good  job :  we  made  her  pay  while  she  lasted,  and 
she  payed  first  rate ;  and  if  we  care  to  try  our  hand  again, 
we  can  try  in  style.  Another  good  job  :  we  have  a  fine, 
stiff,  roomy  boat,  and  you  know  who  you  have  to  thank 
for  that.  We've  got  six  lives  to  save,  and  a  pot  of 
money ;  and  the  point  is,  where  are  we  to  take  'em  ?  " 

"  It's  all  two  thousand  miles  to  the  nearest  of  the 
Sandwiches,  I  fancy,"  observed  Mac. 

"  No,  not  so  bad  as  that,"  returned  the  captain.  "  But 
it's  bad  enough  :  rather  better'n  a  thousand." 

"I  know  a  man  who  once  did  twelve  hundred  in  a 
boat,"  said  Mac,  "  and  he  had  all  he  wanted.  He  fetched 
ashore  in  the  Marquesas,  and  never  set  a  foot  on  any- 
thing floating  from  that  day  to  this.     He  said  he  would 


THE  BUDGET  OF  THE  "CURRENCY  LASS."   483 

rather  put  a  pistol  to  his  head  and  knock  his  brains 
out." 

"Ay,  ay!"  said  Wicks.  "Well  I  remember  a  boat's 
crew  that  made  this  very  island  of  Kauai,  and  from  just 
about  where  we  lie,  or  a  bit  further.  When  they  got 
up  with  the  land,  they  were  clean  crazy.  There  was  an 
iron-bound  coast  and  an  *01d  Bob  Eidley  of  a  surf  on. 
The  natives  hailed  'em  from  fishing-boats,  and  sung  out 
it  couldn't  be  done  at  the  money.  Much  they  cared ! 
there  was  the  land,  that  was  all  they  knew ;  and  they 
turned  to  and  drove  the  boat  slap  ashore  in  the  thick 
of  it,  and  was  all  drowned  but  one.  No ;  boat  trips  are 
my  eye,"  concluded  the  captain,  gloomily. 

The  tone  was  surprising  in  a  man  of  his  indomitable 
temper.  "Come,  Captain,"  said  Carthew,  "you  have 
something  else  up  your  sleeve  ;  out  with  it." 

"  It's  a  fact,"  admitted  Wicks.  "  You  see  there's  a 
raft  of  little  bally  reefs  about  here,  kind  of  chicken- 
pox  on  the  chart.  Well,  I  looked  'em  all  up,  and  there's 
one  —  Midway  or  Brooks  they  call  it,  not  forty  mile 
from  our  assigned  position  —  that  I  got  news  of.  It 
turns  out  it's  a  coaling  station  of  the  Pacific  Mail,"  he 
said,  simply. 

"  Well,  and  I  know  it  ain't  no  such  a  thing,"  said 
Mac.     "  I  been  quartermaster  in  that  line  myself." 

"All  right,"  returned  Wicks.  "There's  the  book. 
Kead  what  Hoyt  says  —  read  it  aloud  and  let  the  others 
bear." 


484  THE    WRECKER. 

Hoyt's  falsehood  (as  readers  know)  was  explicit ;  in- 
credulity was  impossible,  and  the  news  itself  delightful 
beyond  hope.  Each  saw  in  his  jnind's  eye  the  boat  draw 
in  to  a  trim  island  with  a  wharf,  coal-sheds,  gardens,  the 
Stars  and  Stripes  and  the  white  cottage  of  the  keeper  ; 
saw  themselves  idle  a  few  weeks  in  tolerable  quarters, 
and  then  step  on  board  the  China  mail,  romantic  waifs, 
and  yet  with  pocketsful  of  money,  calling  for  champagne 
and  waited  on  by  troops  of  stewards.  Breakfast,  that 
had  begun  so  dully,  ended  amid  sober  jubilation,  and  all 
hands  turned  immediately  to  prepare  the  boat. 

Now  that  all  spars  were  gone,  it  was  no  easy  job  to 
get  her  launched.  Some  of  the  necessary  cargo  was  first 
stowed  on  board ;  the  specie,  in  particvdar,  being  packed 
in  a  strong  chest  and  secured  with  lashings  to  the  after- 
thwart  in  case  of  a  capsize.  Then  a  piece  of  the  bulwark 
was  razed  to  the  level  of  the  deck,  and  the  boat  swung 
thwart-ship,  made  fast  with  a  slack  line  to  either  stump, 
and  successfully  run  out.  For  a  voyage  of  forty  miles 
to  hospitable  quarters,  not  much  food  or  water  was 
required ;  but  they  took  both  in  superfluity.  Amalu  and 
Mac,  both  ingrained  sailor-men,  had  chests  which  were  the 
headquarters  of  their  lives ;  two  more  chests  with  hand- 
bags, oilskins,  and  blankets  supplied  the  others  ;  Had- 
den,  amid  general  applause,  added  the  last  case  of  the 
brown  sherry ;  the  captain  brought  the  log,  instruments, 
and  chronometer ;  nor  did  Hemstead  forget  the  banjo  or 
a  pinned  handkerchief  of  Butaritari  shells. 


THE  BUDGET  OF  THE  "  CURRENCY  LASS."   485 

It  was  about  three  p.m.  when  they  pushed  off,  and 
(the  wind  being  still  westerly)  fell  to  the  oars.  "  Well, 
we've  got  the  guts  out  of  you ! "  was  the  captain's  nodded 
farewell  to  the  hulk  of  the  Currency  Lass,  which  pres- 
ently shrank  and  faded  in  the  sea.  A  little  after  a  calm 
succeeded  with  much  rain ;  and  the  first  meal  was  eaten, 
and  the  watch  below  lay  down  to  their  uneasy  slumber 
on  the  bilge  under  a  roaring  shower-bath.  The  twenty- 
ninth  dawned  overhead  from  out  of  ragged  clouds  ;  there 
is  no  moment  when  a  boat  at  sea  appears  so  trenchantly 
black  and  so  conspicuously  little ;  and  the  crew  looked 
about  them  at  the  sky  and  water  with  a  thrill  of  loneli- 
ness and  fear.  With  sunrise  the  trade  set  in,  lusty  and 
true  to  the  point;  sail  was  made;  the  boat  flew;  and 
by  about  four  of  the  afternoon,  they  were  well  up  with 
the  closed  part  of  the  reef,  and  the  captain  standing  on 
the  thwart,  and  holding  by  the  mast,  was  studying  the 
island  through  the  binoculars. 

"  Well,  and  where's  your  station  ?  "  cried  Mac. 

"  I  don't  someway  pick  it  up,"  replied  the  captain. 

"No,  nor  never  will!"  retorted  Mac,  with  a  clang  of 
despair  and  triumph  in  his  tones. 

The  truth  was  soon  plain  to  all.  ISTo  buoys,  no  bea- 
cons, no  lights,  no  coal,  no  station ;  the  castaways  pulled 
through  a  lagoon  and  landed  on  an  isle,  where  was  no 
mark  of  man  but  wreckwood,  and  no  sound  but  of  the 
sea.  For  the  seafowl  that  harboured  and  lived  there 
at  the  epoch  of  my  visit  were  then  scattered  into  the 


486  THE  WRECKER. 

uttermost  parts  of  tlie  ocean,  and  had  left  no  traces 
of  their  sojourn  besides  dropped  feathers  and  addled 
eggs.  It  was  to  this  they  had  been  sent,  for  this  they 
had  stooped  all  night  over  the  dripping  oars,  hourly 
moving  further  from  relief.  The  boat,  for  as  small  as 
it  was,  was  yet  eloquent  of  the  hands  of  men,  a  thing 
alone  indeed  upon  the  sea  but  yet  in  itself  all  human ; 
and  the  isle,  for  which  they  had  exchanged  it,  was  in- 
gloriously  savage,  a  place  of  distress,  solitude,  and  hunger 
unrelieved.  There  was  a  strong  glare  and  shadow  of 
the  evening  over  all ;  in  which  they  sat  or  lay,  not 
speaking,  careless  even  to  eat,  men  swindled  out  of 
life  and  riches  by  a  lying  book.  In  the  great  good 
nature  of  the  whole  party,  no  word  of  reproach  had 
been  addressed  to  Hadden,  the  author  of  these  disas- 
ters. But  the  new  blow  was  less  magnanimously  borne, 
and  many  angry  glances  rested  on  the  captain. 

Yet  it  was  himself  who  roused  them  from  their  leth- 
argy. Grudgingly  they  obeyed,  drew  the  boat  beyond 
tidemark,  and  folloAved  him  to  the  top  of  the  miserable 
islet,  whence  a  view  was  commanded  of  the  whole  wheel 
of  the  horizon,  then  part  darkened  under  the  coming 
night,  part  dyed  with  the  hues  of  the  sunset  and  popu- 
lous with  the  sunset  clouds.  Here  the  camp  was 
pitched  and  a  tent  run  up  with  the  oars,  sails,  and 
mast.  And  here  Amalu,  at  no  man's  bidding,  from  the 
mere  instinct  of  habitual  service,  built  a  fire  and  cooked 
a  meal.     Night  was  come,  and  the  stars  and  the  silver 


THE  BUDGET  OF  THE  "CUKRENCY  LASS."   487 

sickle  of  new  moon  beamed  overhead,  before  the  meal 
was  ready.  The  cold  sea  shone  about  them,  and  the 
fire  glowed  in  their  faces,  as  they  ate.  Tommy  had 
opened  his  case,  and  the  brown  sherry  went  the  round ; 
but  it  was  long  before  they  came  to  conversation. 

"  Well,  is  it  to  be  Kauai  after  all  ? "  asked  Mac 
suddenly. 

"This  is  bad  enough  for  me,"  said  Tommy.  ''Let's 
stick  it  out  where  we   are." 

"  Well,  I  can  tell  ye  one  thing,"  said  Mac,  "  if  ye  care 
to  hear  it.  When  I  was  in  the  China  mail,  we  once 
made  this  island.     It's  in  the  course  from  Honolulu." 

"  Deuce  it  is  !  "  cried  Carthew.  "  That  settles  it,  then. 
Let's  stay.  We  must  keep  good  fires  going ;  and  there's 
plenty  wreck." 

"  Lashings  of  wreck ! "  said  the  Irishman.  "  There's 
nothing  here  but  wreck  and  coffin  boards." 

"But  we'll  have  to  make  a  proper  blyze,"  objected 
Hemstead.  "  You  can't  see  a  fire  like  this,  not  any  wye 
awye,  I  mean," 

"  Can't  you  ?  "  said  Carthew.     "Look  round." 

They  did,  and  saw  the  hollow  of  the  night,  the  bare, 
bright  face  of  the  sea,  and  the  stars  regarding  them  ; 
and  the  voices  died  in  their  bosoms  at  the  spectacle. 
In  that  huge  isolation,  it  seemed  they  must  be  visible 
from  China  on  the  one  hand  and  California  on  the 
other. 

"  My  God,  it's  dreary  ! "  whispered  Hemstead. 

"  Dreary  ?  "  cried  Mac,  and  fell  suddenly  silent. 


488  THE   WRECKER. 

"It's  better  than  a  boat,  anyway,"  said  Hatklen.  ''I've 
had  my  bellyful  of  boat." 

"  What  kills  me  is  that  specie ! "  the  captain  broke 
out.  "  Think  of  all  that  riches,  —  four  thousand  in  gold, 
bad  silver,  and  short  bills  —  all  found  money,  too  !  —  and 
no  more  use  than  that  much  dung  ! " 

"  I'll  tell  you  one  thing,"  said  Tommy.  "  I  don't  like  it 
being  in  the  boat  —  I  don't  care  to  have  it  so  far  away." 

"  Why,  who's  to  take  it  ?  "  cried  Mac,  with  a  guffaw 
of  evil  laughter. 

But  this  was  not  at  all  the  feeling  of  the  partners,  who 
rose,  clambered  down  the  isle,  brought  back  the  inesti- 
mable treasure-chest  slung  upon  two  oars,  and  set  it  con- 
spicuous in  the  shining  of  the  fire. 

"  There's  my  beauty  ! "  cried  Wicks,  viewing  it  with  a 
cocked  head.  "  That's  better  than  a  bonfire.  What !  we 
have  a  chest  here,  and  bills  for  close  upon  two  thousand 
pounds ;  there's  no  show  to  that,  —  it  would  go  in  your 
vest  pocket,  —  but  the  rest !  upwards  of  forty  pounds 
avoirdupois  of  coined  gold,  and  close  on  two  hundred- 
weight of  Chile  silver !  What !  aint  that  good  enough 
to  fetch  a  fleet  ?  Do  you  mean  to  say  that  won't  affect 
a  ship's  compass  ?  Do  you  mean  to  tell  me  the  lookout 
won't  turn  to  and  smell  it  ?  "  he  cried. 

Mac,  who  had  no  part  nor  lot  in  the  bills,  the  forty 
pounds  of  gold,  or  the  two  hundredweight  of  silver, 
heard  this  with  impatience,  and  fell  into  a  bitter,  chok- 
ing laughter.      "  You'll  see  !  "  he  said,  harshly.     "  You'll 


THE   BUDGET    OF   THE    "  CURllENCY   LASS."       480 

be  glad  to  feed  them  bills  into  the  fire  before  you're 
through  with  ut ! "  And  he  turned,  passed  by  himself 
out  of  the  ring  of  the  firelight,  and  stood  gazing 
seaward. 

His  speech  and  his  departure  extinguished  instantly 
those  sparks  of  better  humour  kindled  by  the  dinner  and 
the  chest.  The  group  fell  again  to  an  ill-favoured 
silence,  and  Hemstead  began  to  touch  the  banjo,  as  was 
his  habit  of  an  evening.  His  repertory  was  small :  the 
chords  of  Home,  Sweet  Home  fell  under  his  fingers ;  and 
when  he  had  played  the  symphony,  he  instinctively 
raised  up  his  voice.  "Be  it  never  so  'umble,  there's  no 
plyce  like  'ome,"  he  sang.  The  last  word  was  still  upon 
his  lips,  when  the  instrument  was  snatched  from  him 
and  dashed  into  the  fire ;  and  he  turned  with  a  cry  to 
look  into  the  furious  countenance  of  Mac. 

"  I'll  be  damned  if  I  stand  this ! "  cried  the  captain, 
leaping  up  belligerent. 

"  I  told  ye  I  was  a  voilent  man,"  said  Mac,  with  a 
movement  of  deprecation  very  surprising  in  one  of  his 
character.  "  Why  don't  he  give  me  a  chance,  then  ? 
Haven't  we  enough  to  bear  the  way  we  are  ?  "  And  to 
the  wonder  and  dismay  of  all,  the  man  choked  upon  a 
sob.  "  It's  ashamed  of  meself  I  am,"  he  said  presently, 
his  Irish  accent  twenty-fold  increased.  "  I  ask  all  your 
pardons  for  me  voilence ;  and  especially  the  little  man's, 
who  is  a  harmless  crayture,  and  here's  me  hand  to'm,  if 
he'll  condescind  to  take  me  by't." 


490  THE   WIIECKER. 

So  this  scene  of  barbarity  and  sentimentalism  passed 
off,  leaving  behind  strange  and  incongruous  impressions. 
True,  every  one  was  perhaps  glad  when  silence  succeeded 
that  all  too  appropriate  music ;  true,  Mac's  apology 
and  subsequent  behaviour  rather  raised  him  in  the  opin- 
ion of  his  fellow-castaways.  But  the  discordant  note 
had  been  struck,  and  its  harmonics  tingled  in  the  brain. 
In  that  savage,  houseless  isle,  the  passions  of  man  had 
sounded,  if  only  for  the  moment,  and  all  men  trembled 
at  the  possibilities  of  horror. 

It  was  determined  to  stand  watch  and  watch  in  case 
of  passing  vessels ;  and  Tommy,  on  fire  with  an  idea, 
volunteered  to  stand  the  first.  The  rest  crawled  under 
the  tent,  and  were  soon  enjoying  that  comfortable  gift 
of  sleep,  which  comes  everywhere  and  to  all  men, 
quenching  anxieties  and  speeding  time.  And  no  sooner 
were  all  settled,  no  sooner  had  the  drone  of  many 
snorers  begun  to  mingle  with  and  overcome  the  surf, 
than  Tommy  stole  from  his  post  with  the  case  of 
sherry,  and  dropped  it  in  a  quiet  cove  in  a  fathom  of 
water.  But  the  stormy  inconstancy  of  Mac's  behaviour 
had  no  connection  with  a  gill  or  two  of  wine ;  his  pas- 
sions, angry  and  otherwise,  were  on  a  different  sail 
plan  from  his  neighbours' ;  and  there  were  possibilities 
of  good  and  evil  in  that  hybrid  Celt  beyond  their 
prophecy. 

About  two  in  the  morning,  the  starry  sky  —  or  so  it 
seemed,  for  the  drowsy  watchman  had  not  observed  the 


THE   BUDGET    OF   THE    "  CUKRE^^CY   LASS."       491 

approach  of  any  cloud  —  brimmed  over  in  a  deluge  ;  and 
for  three  days  it  rained  without  remission.  The  islet 
was  a  sponge,  the  castaways  sops  ;  the  view  all  gone, 
even  the  reef  concealed  behind  the  curtain  of  the  falling 
water.  The  fire  was  soon  drowned  out ;  after  a  couple 
of  boxes  of  matches  had  been  scratched  in  vain,  it  was 
decided  to  wait  for  better  weather ;  and  the  party  lived 
in  wretchedness  on  raw  tins  and  a  ration  of  hard  bread. 

By  the  2d  February,  in  the  dark  hours  of  the  morn- 
ing watch,  the  clouds  were  all  blown  by;  the  sun 
rose  glorious ;  and  once  more  the  castaways  sat  by  a 
quick  fire,  and  drank  hot  coffee  with  the  greed  of  brutes 
and  sufferers.  Thenceforward  their  affairs  moved  in  a 
routine.  A  fire  was  constantly  maintained ;  and  this 
occupied  one  hand  continuously,  and  the  others  for  an 
hour  or  so  in  the  day.  Twice  a  day,  all  hands  bathed 
in  the  lagoon,  their  chief,  almost  their  only  pleasure. 
Often  they  fished  in  the  lagoon  with  good  success.  And 
the  rest  was  passed  in  lolling,  strolling,  yarns,  and  dis- 
putation. The  time  of  the  China  steamers  was  calcu- 
lated to  a  nicety ;  which  done,  the  thought  was  rejected 
and  ignored.  It  was  one  that  would  not  bear  considera- 
tion. The  boat  voyage  having  been  tacitly  set  aside, 
the  desperate  part  chosen  to  wait  there  for  the  coming 
of  help  or  of  starvation,  no  man  had  courage  left  to 
look  his  bargain  in  the  face,  far  less  to  discuss  it  with 
his  neighbours.  But  the  unuttered  terror  haunted  them  ; 
in  every  hour  of  idleness,  at  every  moment  of  silence, 


492  THE    WIIECKER. 

it  returned,  and  breathed  a  chill  about  the  circle,  and 
carried  men's  eyes  to  the  horizon.  Then,  in  a  panic  of 
self-defence,  they  would  rally  to  some  other  subject. 
And,  in  that  lone  spot,  what  else  was  to  be  found  to 
speak  of  but  the  treasure  ? 

That  was  indeed  the  chief  singularity,  the  one  thing 
conspicuous  in  their  island  life ;  the  presence  of  that  chest 
of  bills  and  specie  dominated  the  mind  like  a  cathedral ; 
and  there  were  besides  connected  with  it,  certain  irk- 
ing problems  well  fitted  to  occupy  the  idle.  Two  thou- 
sand pounds  were  due  to  the  Sydney  firm ;  two  thousand 
pounds  were  clear  profit,  and  fell  to  be  divided  in  varying 
proportions  among  six.  It  had  been  agreed  how  the  part- 
ners were  to  range  ;  every  pound  of  capital  subscribed, 
every  pound  that  fell  due  in  wages,  was  to  count  for 
one  "  lay."  Of  these.  Tommy  could  claim  five  hundred' 
and  ten,  Carthew  one  hundred  and  seventy,  Wicks  one 
hundred  and  forty,  and  Hemstead  and  Amalu  ten  apiece  : 
eight  hundred  and  forty  "  lays  "  in  all.  What  was  the 
value  of  a  lay  ?  This  was  at  first  debated  in  the  air 
and  chiefly  by  the  strength  of  Tommy's  lungs.  Then 
followed  a  series  of  incorrect  calculations ;  from  which 
they  issued,  arithmetically  foiled,  but  agreed  from  weari- 
ness upon  an  approximate  value  of  £2  7*.  7^d.  The 
figures  were  admittedly  incorrect ;  the  sum  of  the  shares 
came  not  to  £2000,  but  to  £1996  6s. :  £3  Us.  being  thus 
left  unclaimed.  But  it  was  the  nearest  they  had  yet  found, 
and  the  highest  as  well,  so  that  the  partivers  were  made 


THE   BUDGET   OF   THE    '' CUiiliENCY    LxS.SS."       4U3 

the  less  critical  by  the  contemplation  of  their  splendid 
dividends.  Wicks  put  in  £100  and  stood  to  draw  cap- 
tain's wages  for  two  months ;  his  taking  was  £333  3s. 
6|d  Carthew  had  put  in  £150:  he  was  to  take  out 
£401  18s.  GLd.  Tommy's  £500  had  grown  to  be  £1213 
12s.  9f d. ;  and  Amalu  and  Hemstead,  ranking  for  wages 
only,  had  £22  16s.  O^d.,  each. 

From  talking  and  brooding  on  these  figures,  it  was  but 
a  step  to  opening  the  chest;  and  once  the  chest  open, 
the  glamour  of  the  cash  was  irresistible.  Each  felt  that 
he  must  see  his  treasure  separate  with  the  eye  of  flesh, 
handle  it  in  the  hard  coin^  mark  it  for  his  own,  and 
stand  forth  to  himself  the  approved  owner.  And  here 
an  insurmountable  difficulty  barred  the  way.  There 
were  some  seventeen  shillings  in  English  silver :  the  rest 
was  Chile ;  and  the  Chile  dollar,  which  had  been  taken 
at  the  rate  of  six  to  the  pound  sterling,  was  practically 
their  smallest  coin.  It  was  decided,  therefore,  to  divide 
the  pounds  only,  and  to  throw  the  shillings,  pence,  and 
fractions  in  a  common  fund.  This,  with  the  three  pound 
fourteen  already  in  the  heel,  made  a  total  of  seven  pounds 
one  shilling. 

"I'll  tell  you,"  said  Wicks.  "Let  Carthew  and 
Tommy  and  me  take  one  pound  apiece,  and  Hemstead 
and  Amalu  split  the  other  four,  and  toss  up  for  the  odd 
bob." 

"0,  rot!"  said  Carthew.  "Tommy  and  I  are  burst- 
ing already.  We  can  take  half  a  sov'  each,  and  let  the 
other  three  have  forty  shillings." 


494  THE    WltECKER. 

"I'll  tell  you  now  —  it's  not  worth  splitting,"  broke  in 
"Mac.  "I've  cards  in  my  chest.  Why  don't  you  play 
for  the  slump  sum  ?  " 

In  that  idle  place,  the  proposal  was  accepted  with 
delight.  Mac,  as  the  owner  of  the  cards,  was  given  a 
stake;  the  sum  was  played  for  in  five  games  of  crib- 
bage ;  and  when  Amalu,  the  last  survivor  in  the  tourna- 
ment, was  beaten  by  Mac,  it  was  found  the  dinner  hour 
was  past.  After  a  hasty  meal,  they  fell  again  imme- 
diately to  cards,  this  time  (on  Carthew's  proposal)  to 
Van  John.  It  was  then  probably  two  p.m.  of  the  9th 
February ;  and  they  played  with  varying  chances  for 
twelve  hours,  slept  heavily,  and  rose  late  on  the  mor- 
row to  resume  the  game.  All  day  of  the  10th,  with 
grudging  intervals  for  food,  and  with  one  long  absence 
on  the  part  of  Tommy  from  which  he  returned  drip- 
ping with  the  case  of  sherry,  they  continued  to  deal 
and  stake.  Night  fell:  they  drew  the  closer  to  the 
fire.  It  was  maybe  two  in  the  morning,  and  Tommy 
was  selling  his  deal  by  auction,  as  usual  with  that 
timid  player;  when  Carthew,  who  didn't  intend  to  bid, 
had  a  moment  of  leisure  and  looked  round  him.  He 
beheld  the  moonlight  on  the  sea,  the  money  piled  and 
scattered  in  that  incongruous  place,  the  perturbed  faces 
of  the  players ;  he  felt  in  his  own  breast  the  familiar 
tumult ;  and  it  seemed  as  if  there  rose  in  his  ears  a  sound 
of  music,  and  the  moon  seemed  still  to  shine  upon  a 
sea,  but  the  sea  war,  changed,  and  the  Casino  towered 


THE   BUDGET   OF   THE    "CURRENCY   LASS."       495 

from,  among  lamplit  gardens,  and  the  money  clinked  on 
the  green  board.  "  Good  God !  "  he  thought,  "  am  I  gam- 
bling again  ?  "  He  looked  the  more  curiously  about  the 
sandy  table.  He  and  Mac  had  played  and  won  like  gam- 
blers ;  the  mingled  gold  and  silver  lay  by  their  places  in 
the  heap.  Amalu  and  Hemstead  had  each  more  than 
held  their  own ;  but  Tommy  was  cruel  far  to  leeward, 
and  the  captain  was  reduced  to  perhaps  fifty  pounds. 

"  I  say,  let's  knock  off,"  said  Carthew. 

"  Give  that  man  a  glass  of  Buckle,"  said  some  one, 
and  a  fresh  bottle  was  opened,  and  the  game  went 
inexorably  on. 

Carthew  was  himself  too  heavy  a  winner  to  with- 
draw or  to  say  more ;  and.  all  the  rest  of  the  night  he 
must  look  on  at  the  progress  of  this  folly,  and  make 
gallant  attempts  to  lose  with  the  not  uncommon  conse- 
quence of  Avinning  more.  The  first  dawn  of  the  11th 
February  found  him  well-nigh  desperate.  It  chanced 
he  was  then  dealer,  and  still  winning.  He  had  just 
dealt  a  round  of  many  tens ;  every  one  had  staked 
heavily ;  the  captain  had  put  up  all  that  remained  to 
him,  twelve  pounds  in  gold  and  a  few  dollars ;  and 
Carthew,  looking  privately  at  his  cards  before  he  showed 
them,  found  he  held  a  natural. 

"See  here,  you  fellows,"  he  broke  out,  "this  is  a 
sickening  business,  and  I'm  done  with  it  for  one."  So 
saying,  he  showed  his  cards,  tore  them  across,  and  rose 
from  the  ground.    - 


496  THE    WUECKER. 

The  company  stared  and  murmured  in  mere  amaze- 
ment ;  but  Mac  stepped  gallantly  to  his  support. 

« "We've  had  enough  of  it,  I  do  believe,"  said  he. 
*'  But  of  course  it  was  all  fun,  and  here's  my  counters 
back.  All  counters  in,  boys ! "  and  he  began  to  pour 
his  winnings  into  the  chest,  which  stood  fortunately 
near  him. 

Carthew  stepped  across  and  wrung  him  by  the  hand. 
"  I'll  never  forget  this,"  he  said. 

"And  what  are  ye  going  to  do  with  the  Highway  boy 
and  the  plumber  ?  "  inquired  Mac,  in  a  low  tone  of  voice. 
"  They've  both  wan,  ye  see." 

"  That's  true  !  "  said  Carthew  aloud.  "  Amalu  and 
Hemstead,  count  your  winnings;  Tommy  and  I  pay 
that." 

It  was  carried  without  speech :  the  pair  glad  enough 
to  receive  their  winnings,  it  mattered  not  from  whence ; 
and  Tommy,  who  had  lost  about  five  hundred  pounds, 
delighted  with  the  compromise. 

"And  how  about  Mac  ?  "  asked  Hemstead.  "  Is  he  to 
lose  all  ?  " 

"I  beg  your  pardon,  plumber.  I'm  sure  ye  mean 
well,"  returned  the  Irishman,  "but  you'd  better  shut 
your  face,  for  I'm  not  that  kind  of  a  man.  If  I  t'ought 
I  had  wan  that  money  fair,  there's  never  a  soul  here 
could  get  it  from  me.  But  I  t'ought  it  was  in  fun ; 
that  was  my  mistake,  ye  see ;  and  there's  no  man  big 
enough  upon  this  island  to  give  a  present  to  my  mother's 


A   HARD    BAUGAIN.  497 

son.  So  there's  my  opinion  to  ye,  plumber,  and  you  can 
put  it  in  your  pockut  till  required." 

"  Well,  I  will  say,  IVIac,  you're  a  gentleman,"  said 
Carthew,  as  he  helped  him  to  shovel  back  his  winnings 
into  the  treasure  chest. 

"■  Divil  a  fear  of  it,  sir !  a  drunken  sailor-man,"  said 
Mac. 

The  captain  had  sat  somewhile  with  his  face  in  his 
hands :  now  he  rose  mechanically,  shaking  and  stum- 
bling like  a  drunkard  after  a  debauch.  But  as  he  rose, 
his  face  was  altered,  and  his  voice  rang  out  over  the  isle, 
''  Sail,  ho !  " 

All  turned  at  the  cry,  and  there,  in  the  wild  light  of 
the  morning,  heading  straight  for  Midway  Keef,  was  the 
brig  Flying  Scud  of  Hull. 


498  THE   WRECKER. 

CHAPTER   XXIV. 

A   HAKD    BARGAIN. 

The  ship  which  thus  appeared  before  the  castaways 
had  long  "tramped''  the  ocean,  wandering  from  one  port 
to  another  as  freights  offered.  She  was  two  years  out 
from  London,  by  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  India,  and  the 
Archipelago ;  and  was  now  bound  for  San  Francisco  in 
the  hope  of  working  homeward  round  the  Horn.  Her 
captain  was  one  Jacob  Trent.  He  had  retired  some  five 
years  before  to  a  suburban  cottage,  a  patch  of  cabbages, 
a  gig,  and  the  conduct  of  what  he  called  a  Bank.  The 
name  appears  to  have  been  misleading.  Borrowers  were 
accustomed  to  choose  works  of  art  and  utility  in  the 
front  shop ;  loaves  of  sugar  and  bolts  of  broadcloth  were 
deposited  in  pledge  ;  and  it  was  a  part  of  the  manager's 
duty  to  dash  in  his  gig  on  Saturday  evenings  from  one 
small  retailer's  to  another,  and  to  annex  in  each  the 
bulk  of  the  week's  takings.  His  was  thus  an  active 
life,  and  to  a  man  of  the  type  of  a  rat,  filled  with  recon- 
dite joys.  An  unexpected  loss,  a  law  suit,  and  the  unin- 
telligent commentary  of  the  judge  upon  the  bench,  com- 
bined to  disgust  him  of  the  business.  I  Avas  so  extraor- 
dinarily fortunate  as  to  find,  in  an  old  newspaper,  a 
report  of  the  proceedings  in  Lyall  v.  The  Cardiff  Mutual 
Accommodation  Banking  Co.     "  I  confess  I  fail  entirely 


A   HARD   BARGAIN.  499 

to  understand  the  nature  of  the  business,"  the  judge  had 
remarked,  while  Trent  was  being  examined  in  chief;  a 
little  after,  on  fuller  information  —  "  They  call  it  a  bank," 
lie  had  opined,  "but  it  seems  to  me  to  be  an  unlicensed 
pawnshop  "  ;  and  he  wound  up  with  this  appalling  allo- 
cution :  "Mr.  Trent,  I  must  put  you  on  your  guard ;  you 
must  be  verj''  careful,  or  we  shall  see  you  here  again." 
In  the  inside  of  a  week  the  captain  disposed  of  the  bank, 
the  cottage,  and  the  gig  and  horse;  and  to  sea  again  in 
the  Flying  Scud,  where  he  did  well  and  gave  high  satis- 
faction to  his  owners.  But  the  glory  clung  to  him ;  he 
was  a  plain  sailor-man,  he  said,  but  he  could  never  long 
allow  you  to  forget  that  he  had  been  a  banker. 

His  mate,  Elias  Goddedaal,  was  a  huge  viking  of  a 
man,  six  feet  three  and  of  proportionate  mass,  strong, 
sober,  industrious,  musical,  and  sentimental.  He  ran 
continually  over  into  Swedish  melodies,  chiefly  in  the 
minor.  He  had  paid  nine  dollars  to  hear  Patti ;  to  hear 
Nilsson,  he  had  deserted  a  ship  and  two  months'  wages ; 
and  he  was  ready  at  any  time  to  walk  ten  miles  for  a 
good  concert  or  seven  to  a  reasonable  play.  On  board 
he  had  three  treasures :  a  canary  bird,  a  concertina,  and 
a  blinding  copy  of  the  works  of  Shakespeare.  He  had  a 
gift,  peculiarly  Scandinavian,  of  making  friends  at  sight : 
an  elemental  innocence  commended  him  ;  he  was  without 
fear,  without  reproach,  and  without  money  or  the  hope 
of  making  it. 

Holdorsen  was  second  mate,  and  berthed  aft,  but 
messed  usually  with  the  hands. 


500  THE  WRECKER. 

Of  one  more  of  the  crew,  some  image  lives.  This  was 
a  foremost  hand  out  of  the  Clyde,  of  the  name  of  Brown. 
A  small,  dark,  thickset  creature,  with  dog's  eyes,  of  a 
disposition  incomparably  mild  and  harmless,  he  knocked 
about  seas  and  cities,  the  uncomplaining  whiptop  of  one 
vice.  "The  drink  is  my  trouble,  ye  see,"  he  said  to 
Carthew  shyly ;  "  and  it's  the  more  shame  to  me  because 
I'm  come  of  very  good  people  at  Bowling  down  the 
wa'er."  The  letter  that  so  much  affected  Nares,  in  case 
the  reader  shoiild  remember  it,  "was  addressed  to  this 
man  Brown. 

Such  was  the  ship  that  now  carried  joy  into  the 
bosoms  of  the  castaways.  After  the  fatigue  and  the 
bestial  emotions  of  their  night  of  play,  the  approach  of 
salvation  shook  them  from  all  self-control.  Their  hands 
trembled,  their  eyes  shone,  they  laughed  and  shouted 
like  children  as  they  cleared  their  camp :  and  some  one 
beginning  to  whistle  Marching  Through  Georgia,  the 
remainder  of  the  packing  was  conducted,  amidst  a  thou- 
sand interruptions,  to  these  martial  strains.  But  the 
strong  head  of  Wicks  was  only  partly  turned. 

"  Boys,"  he  said,  "  easy  all !  We're  going  aboard  of  a 
ship  of  which  we  don't  know  nothing;  we've  got  a  chest 
of  specie,  and  seeing  the  weight,  we  can't  turn  to  and 
deny  it.  Now,  suppose  she  was  fishy ;  suppose  it  was 
some  kind  of  a  Bully  Hayes  business  !  It's  my  opinion 
we'd  better  be  on  hand  with  the  pistols." 

Every  man  of  the  party  but  Hemstead  had  some  kind 


A  HARD   BARGAIN.  501 

of  a  revolver;  these  were  accordingly  loaded  and  dis- 
posed about  the  persons  of  the  castaways,  and  the  pack- 
ing was  resumed  and  finished  in  the  same  rapturous 
spirit  as  it  was  begun.  The  sun  was  not  yet  ten  degrees 
above  the  eastern  sea,  but  the  brig  was  already  close  in 
and  hove  to,  before  they  had  launched  the  boat  and  sped, 
shouting  at  the  oars,  towards  the  passage. 

It  was  blowing  fresh  outside  with  a  strong  send  of  sea. 
The  spray  flew  in  the  oarsmen's  faces.  They  saw  the 
Union  Jack  blow  abroad  from  the  Flying  Scud,  the 
men  clustered  at  the  rail,  the  cook  in  the  galley  door,  the 
captain  on  the  quarter-deck  with  a  pith  helmet  and  bi- 
noculars. And  the  whole  familiar  business,  the  comfort, 
company,  and  safety  of  a  ship,  heaving  nearer  at  each 
stroke,  maddened  them  with  joy. 

Wicks  was  the  first  to  catch  the  line,  and  swarm  on 
board,  helping  hands  grabbing  him  as  he  came  and  haul- 
ing him  across  the  rail. 

"  Captain,  sir,  I  suppose  ? "  he  said,  turning  to  the 
hard  old  man  in  the  pith  helmet. 

"  Captain  Trent,  sir,"  returned  the  old  gentleman. 

"  Well,  I'm  Captain  Kirkup,  and  this  is  the  crew  of 
the  Sydney  schooner  Currency  Lass,  dismasted  at  sea 
January  28th." 

"Ay,  ay,"  said  Trent.  "Well,  you're  all  right  now. 
Lucky  for  you  I  saw  your  signal.  I  didn't  know  I  was 
so  near  this  beastly  island,  there  must  be  a  drift  to 
the  south'ard  here ;  and  when  I  came  on  deck  this  morn- 
ing at  eight  bells,  I  thought  it  was  a  ship  afire." 


602  THE   WIIECKER. 

It  had  been  agreed  that,  while  Wicks  was  to  board 
the  ship  and  do  the  civil,  the  rest  were  to  remain  in 
the  whaleboat  and  see  the  treasure  safe.  A  tackle  was 
passed  down  to  them ;  to  this  they  made  fast  the  in- 
valuable chest,  and  gave  the  word  to  heave.  But  tlu! 
unexpected  weight  brought  the  hand  at  the  tackle  to 
a  stand ;  two  others  ran  to  tail  on  and  help  him ;  and 
the  thing  caught  the  eye  of  Trent. 

"'Vast  heaving!"  he  cried  sharply;  and  then  to 
Wicks  :  "What's  that  ?  I  don't  ever  remember  to  have 
seen  a  chest  weigh  like  that." 

"  It's  money,"  said  Wicks. 

"  It's  what  ?  "  cried  Trent. 

"  Specie,"  said  Wicks  ;  "  saved  from  the  wreck." 

Trent  looked  at  him  sharply.  "  Here,  let  go  that 
chest  again,  Mr.  Goddedaal,"  he  commanded,  "shove  the 
boat  off,  and  stream  her  with  a  line  astern." 

"  Ay,  ay,  sir  !  "  from  Goddedaal. 

"What  the  devil's  wrong  ?  "  asked  Wicks. 

"Nothing,  I  daresay,"  returned  Trent.  "But  you'll 
allow  it's  a  queer  thing  when  a  boat  turns  up  in  mid- 
ocean  with  half  a  ton  of  specie,  — and  everybody  armed," 
he  added,  pointing  to  Wicks's  pocket.  "  Your  boat  will 
lay  comfortably  astern,  while  you  come  below  and  make 
yourself  satisfactory." 

"  0,  if  that's  all !  "  said  Wicks.  "My  log  and  papers 
are  as  right  as  the  mail ;  nothing  fishy  about  us."  And 
lie  hailed  his  friends  in  the  boat,  bidding  them  have 
patience,  and  turned  to  follow  Captain  Trent. 


A    HAKD   BARGAIN.  503 

"  This  way,  Captain  Kirkup,"  said  the  latter,  "  And 
don't  blame  a  man  for  too  much  caution  ;  no  offence  in- 
tended ;  and  these  China  rivers  shake  a  fellow's  nerve. 
All  I  want  is  just  to  see  you're  what  you  say  you  are  ; 
it's  only  my  duty,  sir,  and  what  you  would  do  yourself 
in  the  circumstances.  I've  not  always  been  a  ship-cap- 
tain :  I  was  a  banker  once,  and  I  tell  you  that's  the  trade 
to  learn  caution  in.  You  have  to  keep  your  weather-eye 
lifting  Saturday  nights."  And  with  a  dry,  business-like 
cordiality,  he  produced  a  bottle  of  gin. 

The  captains  pledged  each  other ;  the  papers  were 
overhauled  ;  the  tale  of  Topelius  and  the  trade  was  told 
in  appreciative  ears  and  cemented  their  acquaintance. 
Trent's  suspicions,  thus  finally  disposed  of,  were  suc- 
ceeded by  a  fit  of  profound  thought,  during  which  he 
sat  lethargic  and  stern,  looking  at  and  drumming  on  the 
table. 

"Anything  more  ?  "  asked  Wicks. 

"  What  sort  of  a  place  is  it  inside  ?  "  inquired  Trent, 
sudden  as  though  Wicks  had  touched  a  spring. 

"  It's  a  good  enough  lagoon  —  a  few  horses'  heads,  but 
nothing  to  mention,"  answered  Wicks. 

"  I've  a  good  mind  to  go  in,"  said  Trent.  "  I  was  new 
rigged  in  China;  it's  given  very  bad,  and  I'm  getting 
frightened  for  my  sticks.  We  could  set  it  up  as  good  as 
new  in  a  day.  For  I  daresay  your  lot  would  turn  to  and 
give  us  a  hand  ?  " 

"  You  see  if  we  don't !  "  said  Wicks. 


50i  THE   WRECKER. 

"  So  be  it  then,"  concluded  Trent.  "  A  stitch  in  time 
saves  nine." 

They  returned  on  deck ;  Wicks  cried  the  news  to  the 
Currency  Lasses ;  the  foretopsail  was  filled  again,  and 
the  brig  ran'  into  the  lagoon  lively,  the  whaleboat  danc- 
ing in  her  wake,  and  came  to  single  anchor  off  Middle 
Brooks  Island  before  eight.  She  was  boarded  by  the 
castaways,  breakfast  was  served,  the  baggage  slung  on 
board  and  piled  in  the  waist,  and  all  hands  turned 
to  upon  the  rigging.  All  day  the  work  continued, 
the  two  crews  rivalling  each  other  in  expense  of 
strength.  Dinner  was  served  on  deck,  the  officers  mess- 
ing aft  under  the  slack  of  the  spanker,  the  men  fra- 
ternising forward.  Trent  appeared  in  excellent  spir- 
its, served  out  grog  to  all  hands,  opened  a  bottle  of  Cape 
wine  for  the  after-table,  and  obliged  his  guests  with 
many  details  of  the  life  of  a  financier  in  Cardiff.  He 
had  been  forty  years  at  sea,  had  five  times  suffered  ship- 
wreck, was  once  nine  months  the  prisoner  of  a  pepper 
rajah,  and  had  seen  service  under  fire  in  Chinese  rivers ; 
but  the  only  thing  he  cared  to  talk  of,  the  only  thing 
of  which  he  was  vain,  or  with  which  he  thought  it  pos- 
sible to  interest  a  stranger,  was  his  career  as  a  money- 
lender in  the  slums  of  a  seaport  town. 

The  afternoon  spell  told  cruelly  on  the  Currency 
Lasses.  Already  exhausted  as  they  were  with  sleepless- 
ness and  excitement,  they  did  the  last  hours  of  this  vio- 
lent employment  on  bare  nerves ;  and  when  Trent  was 


A   HARD   BARGAIN.  605 

at  last  satisfied  witli  the  condition  of  his  rigging,  ex- 
pected eagerly  the  word  to  put  to  sea.  But  the  captain 
seemed  in  no  hurry.  He  went  and  walked  by  himself 
softly,  like  a  man  in  thought.  Presently  he  hailed 
Wicks.  •» 

"You're  a  kind  of  company,  ain't  you,  Captain 
Kirkup  ?  "  he  inquired. 

"  Yes,  we're  all  on  board  on  lays,"  was  the  reply. 

"  Well,  then,  you  won't  mind  if  I  ask  the  lot  of  you 
down  to  tea  in  the  cabin  ?  "  asked  Trent. 

Wicks  was  amazed,  but  he  naturally  ventured  no  re- 
mark; and  a  little  after,  the  six  Currency  Lasses  sat 
down  with  Trent  and  Goddedaal  to  a  spread  of  marma- 
lade, butter,  toast,  sardines,  tinned  tongue,  and  steaming 
tea.  The  food  was  not  very  good,  and  I  have  no  doubt 
Nares  would  have  reviled  it,  but  it  was  manna  to  the 
castaways.  Goddedaal  waited  on  them  with  a  kindness 
far  before  courtesy,  a  kindness  like  that  of  some  old, 
honest  countrywoman  in  her  farm.  It  was  remembered 
afterwards  that  Trent  took  little  share  in  these  atten- 
tions, but  sat  much  absorbed  in  thought,  and  seemed  to 
remember  and  forget  the  presence  of  his  guests  alter- 
nately. 

Presently  he  addressed  the  Chinaman. 

"  Clear  out ! "  said  he,  and  watched  him  till  he  had 
disappeared  in  the  stair.  "  Now,  gentlemen,"  he  went 
on,  "I  understand  you're  a  joint-stock  sort  of  crew, 
and  that's   why   I've   had  you  all  down;  for  there's  a 


506  THE  WRECKER. 

point  I  want  made  clear.  You  see  what  sort  of  a  ship 
this  is  —  a  good  ship,  though  I  say  it,  and  you  see  what 
the  rations  are  —  good  enough  for  sailor-men." 

There  was  a  hurried  murmur  of  approval,  but  curi- 
osity for  what  was  coming  nejt  prevented  an  articulate 
reply. 

"Well,"  continued  Trent,  making  bread  pills  and 
looking  hard  at  the  middle  of  the  table,  "  I'm  glad  of 
course  to  be  able  to  give  you  a  passage  to  'Frisco ;  one 
sailor-man  should  help  another,  that's  my  motto.  But 
when  you  want  a  thing  in  this  world,  you  generally 
always  have  to  pay  for  it."  He  laughed  a  brief,  joyless 
laugh.     "I  have  no  idea  of  losing  by  my  kindness." 

"  We  have  no  idea  you  should.  Captain,"  said  Wicks. 

"  We  are  ready  to  pay  anything  in  reason,"  added 
Carthew. 

At  the  words,  Goddedaal,  who  sat  next  to  him, 
touched  him  with  his  elbow,  and  the  two  mates 
exchanged  a  significant  look.  The  character  of  Captain 
Trent  was  given  and  taken  in  that  silent  second. 

"In  reason?"  repeated  the  captain  of  the  brig.  "I 
was  waiting  for  that.  Eeason's  between  two  people, 
and  there's  only  one  here.  I'm  the  judge ;  I'm  reason. 
If  you  want  an  advance  you  have  to  pay  for  it" — he 
hastily  corrected  himself — "If  you  want  a  passage  in 
my  ship,  you  have  to  pay  my  price,"  he  substituted. 
"  That's  business,  I  believe.  I  don't  want  you ;  you 
want  me." 

"  Well,  sir,"  said  Carthew,  "  and  what  is  your  price  ?  " 


A  HARD   BARGAIN.  507 

The  captain  made  bread  pills.  "  If  I  were  like  you," 
he  said,  "when  you  got  hold  of  that  merchant  in  the 
Gilberts,  I  might  surprise  you.  You  had  your  chance 
then;  seems  to  me  it's  mine  now.  Turn  about's  fair 
play.  What  kind  of  mercy  did  you  have  on  that  Gil- 
bert merchant  ? "  he  cried,  with  a  sudden  stridency. 
"Not  that  I  blame  you.  All's  fair  in  love  and  busi- 
ness," and  he  laughed  again,  a  little  frosty  giggle. 

"  Well,  sir  ?  "  said  Carthew,  gravely. 

"  Well,  this  ship's  mine,  I  think  ?  "  he  asked  sharply. 

"  Well,  I'm  of  that  way  of  thinking  meself,"  observed 
Mac. 

"  I  say  it's  mine,  sir ! "  reiterated  Trent,  like  a  man 
trying  to  be  angry.  "And  I  tell  you  all,  if  I  was  a 
driver  like  what  you  are,  I  would  take  the  lot.  But 
there's  two  thousand  pounds  there  that  don't  belong  to 
you,  and  I'm  an  honest  man.  Give  me  the  two  thousand 
that's  yours,  and  I'll  give  you  a  passage  to  the  coast,  and 
land  every  man-jack  of  you  in  'Frisco  with  fifteen  pounds 
in  his  pocket,  and  the  captain  here  with  twenty-five." 

Goddedaal  laid  down  his  head  on  the  table  like  a  man 
ashamed. 

"You're  joking,"  cried  Wicks,  purple  in  the  face. 

"  Am  I  ?  "  said  Trent.  "  Please  yourselves.  You're 
under  no  compulsion.  This  ship's  mine,  but  there's  that 
Brooks  Island  don't  belong  to  me,  and  you  can  lay  there 
till  you  die  for  what  I  care." 

"  It's  more  than  your  blooming  brig's  worth ! "  cried 
Wicks. 


508  THE  WEECKER. 

"  It's  my  price  anyway,"  returned  Trent. 

"  And  do  yon  mean  to  say  you  would  land  us  there  to 
starve  ?"  cried  Tommy. 

Captain  Trent  laughed  the  third  time.  "  Starve  ?  T 
defy  you  to,"  said  he.  "I'll  sell  you  all  the  provisions 
you  want  at  a  fair  profit." 

"I  beg  your  pardon,  sir,"  said  Mac,  "but  my  case  is 
by  itself.  I'm  working  me  passage ;  I  got  no  share  in 
that  two  thousand  pounds  nor  nothing  in  my  pockut ; 
and  I'll  be  glad  to  know  what  you  have  to  say  to  me?  " 

"  I  ain't  a  hard  man,"  said  Trent.  "  That  shall  make 
no  difference.  I'll  take  you  with  the  rest,  only  of  course 
you  get  no  fifteen  pound." 

The  impudence  was  so  extreme  and  startling,  that  all 
breathed  deep,  and  Goddedaal  raised  up  his  face  and 
looked  bis  superior  sternly  in  the  eye. 

But  Mac  was  more  ai-ticulate.  "And  you're  what  ye 
call  a  British  sayman,  I  suppose  ?  the  sorrow  in  your 
guts  ! "  he  cried. 

"  One  more  such  word,  and  I  clap  you  in  irons  !  "  said 
Trent,  rising  gleefully  at  the  face  of  opposition. 

"  And  where  would  I  be  while  you  were  doin'  ut  ?  " 
asked  Mac.  "  After  you  and  your  rigging,  too !  Ye  ould 
pug?J>  ye  haven't  the  civility  of  a  bug,  and  I'll  learn  ye 
some." 

His  voice  did  not  even  rise  as  he  uttered  the  threat ; 
no  man  present,  Trent  least  of  all,  expected  that  which 
followed.    The  Irishman's  hand  rose  suddenly  from  below 


A  HAED   BARGAIN.  509 

the  table,  an  open  clasp-knife  balanced  on  the  palm  ;  there 
was  a  movement  swift  as  conjuring;  Trent  started  half 
to  his  feet,  turning  a  little  as  he  rose  so  as  to  escape  the 
table,  and  the  movement  was  his  bane.  The  missile 
struck  him  in  the  jugular;  he  fell  forward,  and  his  blood 
flowed  among  the  dishes  on  the  cloth. 

The  suddenness  of  the  attack  and  the  catastrophe,  the 
instant  change  from  peace  to  war  and  from  life  to  death, 
held  all  men  spellbound.  Yet  a  moment  they  sat  about 
the  table  staring  open-mouthed  upon  the  prostrate  cap- 
tain and  the  flowing  blood.  The  next,  Goddedaal  had 
leaped  to  his  feet,  caught  up  the  stool  on  which  he  had 
been  sitting,  and  swung  it  high  in  air,  a  man  trans- 
figured, roaring  (as  he  stood)  so  that  men's  ears  were 
stunned  with  it.  There  was  no  thought  of  battle  in  the 
Currency  Lasses ;  none  drew  his  weapon ;  all  huddled 
helplessly  from  before  the  face  of  the  baresark  Scandi- 
navian. His  first  blow  sent  Mac  to  ground  with  a 
broken  arm.  His  second  dashed  out  the  brains  of 
Hemstead.  He  turned  from  one  to  another,  menacing 
and  trumpeting  like  a  wounded  elephant,  exulting  in  his 
rage.  But  there  was  no  counsel,  no  light  of  reason,  in 
that  ecstasy  of  battle  ;  and  he  shied  from  the  pursuit  of 
victory  to  hail  fresh  blows  upon  the  supine  Hemstead, 
so  that  the  stool  was  shattered  and  the  cabin  rang  with 
their  violence.  The  sight  of  that  post-mortem  criielty 
recalled  Carthew  to  the  life  of  instinct,  and  his  revolver 
was  in  hand  and  he  had  aimed  and  fired  before  he  knew. 


510  THE   WRECKER. 

The  ear-bursting  sound  of  tlie  report  was  accompanietl 
by  a  yell  of  pain ;  the  colossus  paused,  swayed,  tottered, 
and  fell  headlong  on  the  body  of  his  victim. 

In  the  instant  silence  that  succeeded,  the  sound  of 
feet  pounding  on  the  deck  and  in  the  companion  leaped 
into  hearing ;  and  a  face,  that  of  the  sailor  Holdorsen, 
appeared  below  the  bulkheads  in  the  cabin  doorway. 
Carthew  shattered  it  with  a  second  shot,  for  he  was  a 
marksman. 

"  Pistols  ! "  he  cried,  and  charged  at  the  compaiuon, 
Wicks  at  his  heels,  Tommy  and  Amalu  following.  They 
trod  the  body  of  Holdorsen  underfoot,  and  flew  up-stairs 
and  forth  into  the  dusky  blaze  of  a  sunset  red  as  blood. 
The  numbers  were  still  equal,  but  the  Flying  Scuds 
dreamed  not  of  defence,  and  fled  with  one  accord  for  the 
forecastle  scuttle.  Brown  was  first  in  flight;  he  disap- 
peared below  unscathed ;  the  Chinaman  followed  head- 
foremost with  a  ball  in  his  side ;  and  the  others  shinned 
into  the  rigging. 

A  fierce  composure  settled  upon  Wicks  and  Carthew, 
their  fighting  second  wind.  They  posted  Tommy  at  the 
fore  and  Amalu  at  the  main  to  guard  the  masts  and 
shrouds,  and  going  themselves  into  the  waist,  poured  out 
a  box  of  cartridges  on  deck  and  filled  the  chambers. 
The  poor  devils  aloft  bleated  aloud  for  mercy.  But  the 
hour  of  any  mercy  was  gone  by ;  the  cup  was  brewed 
and  must  be  drunken  to  the  dregs  ;  since  so  many  had 
fallen,   all   must   fall.     The   light  was   bad,  the  cheap 


A  HARD   BARGAIN.  611 

revolvers  fouled  and  carried  wild,  the  screaming  wretches 
were  swift  to  flatten  themselves  against  the  masts  and 
yards  or  find  a  momentary  refuge  ir  the  hanging  sails. 
The  fell  business  took  long,  but  it  was  done  at  last. 
Hardy  the  Londoner  was  shot  on  the  foreroyal  yard,  and 
hung  horribly  suspended  in  the  brails.  Wallen,  the 
other,  had  his  jaw  broken  on  the  maintop-gallant  cross- 
trees,  and  exposed  himself,  shrieking,  till  a  second  shot 
dropped  him  on  the  deck. 

This  had  been  bad  enough,  but  worse  remained  be- 
hind. There  was  still  Brown  in  the  forepeak.  Tommy, 
with  a  sudden  clamour  of  weeping,  begged  for  his  life. 
"  One  man  can't  hurt  us,"  he  sobbed.  ''  We  can't  go  on 
with  this.  I  spoke  to  him  at  dinner.  He's  an  awful 
decent  little  cad.  It  can't  be  done.  Nobody  can  go 
into  that  place  and  murder  him.  It's  too  damned 
wicked." 

The  sound  of  his  supplications  was  perhaps  audible 
to  the  unfortunate  below. 

"One  left,  and  we  all  hang,"  said  Wicks.  "Brown 
must  go  the  same  road."  The  big  man  was  deadly  white 
and  trembled  like  an  aspen ;  and  he  had  no  sooner 
finished  speaking,  than  he  went  to  the  ship's  side  and 
vomited. 

"  We  can  never  do  it  if  we  wait,"  said  Carthew. 
"Now  or  never,"  and  he  marched  toAvards  the  scuttle. 

"No,  no,  no ! "  wailed  Tommy,  clutching  at  his  jacket. 

But  Carthew  flung  him  off,  and  stepped  down  the 
ladder,  his   heart  rising  with  disgust  and  shame.     TJie 


512  THE  WRECKER. 

Chinaman  lay  on  the  floor,  still  groaning ;  the  place 
was  pitch  dark. 

"Brown  !  "  cried  Carthew,  "Brown,  where  are  you  ?" 

His  heart  smote  him  for  the  treacherous  apostrophe, 
but  no  answer  came. 

He  groped  in  the  bunks:  they  were  all  empty.  Then 
he  moved  towards  the  forepeak,  which  was  hampered 
with  coils  of  rope  and  spare  chandlery  in  general. 

"  Brown  ! "  he  said  again. 

"Here,  sir,"  answered  a  shaking  voice;  and  the  poor 
invisible  caitiff  called  on  him  by  name,  and  poured  forth 
out  of  the  darkness  an  endless,  garrulous  appeal  for 
mercy.  A  sense  of  danger,  of  daring,  had  alone  nerved 
Carthew  to  enter  the  forecastle ;  and  here  was  the 
enemy  crying  and  pleading  like  a  frightened  child.  His 
obsequious  "Here,  sir,"  his  horrid  fluency  of  obtesta- 
tion, made  the  murder  tenfold  more  revolting.  Twice 
Carthew  raised  the  pistol,  once  he  pressed  the  trigger 
(or  thought  he  did)  with  all  his  might,  but  no  explosion 
followed;  and  with  that  the  lees  of  his  courage  ran 
quite  out,  and  he  turned  and  fled  from  before  his 
victim. 

Wicks  sat  on  the  fore  hatch,  raised  the  face  of  a  man 
of  seventy,  and  looked  a  wordless  question.  Carthew 
shook  his  head.  With  such  composure  as  a  man  dis- 
plays marching  towards  the  gallows,  Wicks  arose,  walked 
to  the  scuttle,  and  went  down.  Brown  thought  it  was 
Carthew  returning,  and  discovered  himself,  half  crawl- 


A   HARD   BARGAIN.  513 

ing  from  his  shelter,  with  another  incohereut  burst  of 
pleading.  Wicks  emptied  his  revolver  at  the  voice, 
which  broke  into  mouse-like  whimperings  and  groans. 
Silence  succeeded,  and  the  murderer  ran  on  deck  like 
one  possessed. 

The  other  three  were  now  all  gathered  on  the  fore 
hatch,  and  Wicks  took  his  place  beside  them  without 
question  asked  or  answered.  They  sat  close,  like  chil- 
dren in  the  dark,  and  shook  each  other  with  their  shak- 
ing. The  dusk  continued  to  fall;  and  there  was  no 
sound  but  the  beating  of  the  surf  and  the  occasional  hic- 
cup of  a  sob  from  Tommy  Hadden. 

"God,  if  there  was  another  ship!"  cried  Carthew  of  a 
sudden. 

Wicks  started  and  looked  aloft  with  the  trick  of  all 
seamen,  and  shuddered  as  he  saw  the  hanging  figure  on 
the  royal  yard. 

"If  I  went  aloft,  I'd  fall,"  he  said  simply.  "I'm 
done  up." 

It  was  Amalu  who  volunteered,  climbed  to  the  very 
truck,  swept  the  fading  horizon,  and  announced  nothing 
within  sight. 

"  No  odds,"  said  Wicks.     "  We  can't  sleep  .  .  ." 

"  Sleep ! "  echoed  Carthew ;  and  it  seemed  as  if  the 
whole  of  Shakespeare's  Macbeth  thundered  at  the  gallop 
through  his  mind. 

"  Well,  then,  we  can't  sit  and  chitter  here,"  said  Wicks, 
"till  we've  cleaned  ship ;  and  I  can't  turn  to  till  I've  had 


514  THE  WliECKER. 

gin,  and  the  gin's  in  the  cabin,  and  who's  to  fetch  it  ?  " 

"  I  will,"  said  Carthew,  "  if  any  one  has  matches." 

Amalu  passed  him  a  box,  and  he  went  aft  and  down 
the  companion  and  into  the  cabin,  stumbling  npon  bodies. 
Then  he  struck  a  match,  and  his  looks  fell  upon  two 
living  eyes. 

"  Well  ?  "  asked  Mac,  for  it  was  he  who  still  survived 
in  that  shambles  of  a  cabin. 

"  It's  done ;  they're  all  dead,"  answered  Carthew. 

"  Christ ! "  said  the  Irishman,  and  fainted. 

The  gin  was  found  in  the  dead  captain's  cabin ;  it 
was  brought  on  deck,  and  all  hands  had  a  dram,  and 
attacked  their  farther  task.  The  night  was  come,  the 
moon  would  not  be  up  for  hours ;  a  lamp  was  set  on  the 
main  hatch  to  light  Amalu  as  he  washed  down  decks ; 
and  the  galley  lantern  was  taken  to  guide  the  others  in 
their  graveyard  business.  Holdorsen,  Hemstead,  Trent, 
and  Goddedaal  were  first  disposed  of,  the  last  still 
breathing  as  he  went  over  the  side ;  Wallen  followed ; 
and  then  Wicks,  steadied  by  the  gin,  went  aloft  with  a 
boathook  and  succeeded  in  dislodging  Hardy.  The 
Chinaman  was  their  last  task;  he  seemed  to  be  light- 
headed, talked  aloud  in  his  unknown  language  as  they 
brought  him  up,  and  it  was  only  with  the  splash  of  his 
sinking  body  that  the  gibberish  ceased.  Brown,  by  com- 
mon consent,  was  left  alone.  Flesh  and  blood  could  go 
no  farther. 

All  this  time  they  had  been  drinking  undiluted  gin 


A  HAED   BARGAIN.  515 

like  water;  three  bottles  stood  broached  in  different 
quarters  ;  and  none  passed  without  a  ^Ip.  Tommy  col- 
lapsed against  the  mainmast ;  Wicks  fell  on  his  face  on 
the  poop  ladder  and  moved  no  more;  Amalu  had  van- 
ished unobserved.  Carthew  was  the  last  afoot :  he  stood 
swaying  at  the  break  of  the  poop,  and  the  lantern,  which 
he  still  carried,  swung  with  his  movement.  His  head 
hummed ;  it  swarmed  with  broken  thoughts  ;  memory  of 
that  day's  abominations  flared  up  and  died  down  within 
him,  like  the  light  of  a  lamp  in  a  strong  draught.  And 
then  he  had  a  drunkard's  inspiration. 

"  There  must  be  no  more  of  this,"  he  thought,  and 
stumbled  once  more  below. 

The  absence  of  Holdorsen's  body  brought  him  to  a 
stand.  He  stood  and  stared  at  the  empty  floor,  and 
then  remembered  and  smiled.  From  the  captain's  room 
he  took  the  open  case  with  one  dozen  and  three  bottles 
of  gin,' put  the  lantern  inside,  and  walked  precariously 
forth.  Mac  was  once  more  conscious  ;  his  eyes  haggard, 
his  face  drawn  with  pain  and  flushed  with  fever;  and 
Carthew  remembered  he  had  never  been  seen  to,  had 
lain  there  helpless,  and  was  so  to  lie  all  night,  injured, 
perhaps  dying.  But  it  was  now  too  late ;  reason  had 
now  fled  from  that  silent  ship.  If  Carthew  could  get 
on  deck  again,  it  was  as  much  as  he  could  hope ;  and 
casting  on  the  unfortunate  a  glance  of  pity,  the  tragic 
drunkard  shouldered  his  way  up  the  companion,  dropped 
the  case  overboard,  and  fell  in  the  scuppers  helpless. 


516  THE   WRECKER. 


CHAPTER   XXV. 

A  BAD  BARGAIN. 

With  the  first  colour  in  the  east,  Car  the  w  awoke 
and  sat  up.  Awhile  he  gazed  at  the  scroll  of  the 
morning  bank  and  the  spars  and  hanging  canvas  of 
the  brig,  like  a  man  who  wakes  in  a  strange  bed, 
with  a  child's  simplicity  of  wonder.  He  wondered 
above  all  what  ailed  him,  what  he  had  lost,  what  dis- 
favour had  been  done  him,  which  he  knew  he  should 
resent,  yet  had  forgotten.  And  then,  like  a  river  burst- 
ing through  a  dam,  the  truth  rolled  on  him  its  instan- 
taneous volume :  his  memory  teemed  with  speech  and 
pictures  that  he  should  never  again  forget ;  and  he 
sprang  to  his  feet,  stood  a  moment  hand  to  brow,  and 
began  to  walk  violently  to  and  fro  by  the  companion. 
As  he  walked,  he  wrung  his  hands.  "  God —  God — God," 
he  kept  saying,  with  no  thought  of  prayer,  uttering  a 
mere  voice  of  agony. 

The  time  may  have  been  long  or  short,  it  was  perhaps 
minutes,  perhaps  only  seconds,  ere  he  awoke  to  find 
himself  observed,  and  saw  the  captain  sitting  up  and 
watching  him  over  the  break  of  the  poop,  a  strange 
blindness  as  of  fever  in  his  eyes,  a  haggard  knot  of 
corrugations  on  his  brow.  Cain  saw  himself  in  a  mirror. 
For   a  flash  they   looked  upon  each   other,   and  then 


A  BAD   BARGAIN.  517 

glanced  guiltily  aside;  and  Carthew  fled  from  the  eye 
of  his  accomplice,  and  stood  leaning  on  the  taffrail. 

An  hour  went  by,  while  the  day  came  brighter,  and 
the  sun  rose  and  drank  up  the  clouds  :  an  hour  of  silence 
in  the  ship,  an  hour  of  agony  beyoud  narration  for  the 
sufferers.  Brown's  gabbling  prayers,  the  cries  of  the 
sailors  in  the  rigging,  strains  of  the  dead  Hemstead's 
minstrelsy,  ran  together  in  Carthew's  mind,  with  sicken- 
ing iteration.  He  neither  acquitted  nor  condemned  him- 
self :  he  did  not  think,  he  suffered.  In  the  bright 
"water  into  which  he  stared,  the  pictures  changed  and 
were  repeated:  the  baresark  rage  of  Goddedaal;  the 
blood-red  light  of  the  sunset  into  which  they  had  run 
forth ;  the  face  of  the  babbling  Chinaman  as  they  cast 
him  over ;  the  face  of  the  captain,  seen  a  moment  since, 
as  he  awoke  from  drunkenness  into  remorse.  And  time 
passed,  and  the  sun  swam  higher,  and  his  torment  was 
not  abated. 

Then  were  fulfilled  many  sayings,  and  the  weakest 
of  these  condemned  brought  relief  and  healing  to  the 
others.  Amalu  the  drudge  awoke  (like  the  rest)  to 
sickness  of  body  and  distress  of  mind ;  but  the  habit 
of  obedience  ruled  in  that  simple  spirit,  and  appalled  to 
be  so  late,  he  went  direct  into  the  galley,  kindled  the 
fire,  and  began  to  get  breakfast.  At  the  rattle  of  dishes, 
the  snapping  of  the  fire,  and  the  thin  smoke  that  went 
up  straight  into  the  air,  the  spell  was  lifted.  The  con- 
demned felt  once  more  the  good  dry  land  of  habit  under 


518  THE   WRECKER. 

foot;  tliey  touched  again  the  familiar  guide-ropes  of 
sanity ;  they  were  restored  to  a  sense  of  the  blessed 
revolution  and  return  of  all  things  earthly.  The  captain 
drew  a  bucket  of  water  and  began  to  bathe.  Tommy 
sat  wp,  watched  him  awhile,  and  slowly  followed  his 
example ;  and  Carthew,  remembering  his  last  thoughts 
of  the  night  before,  hastened  to  the  cabin. 

Mac  was  awake ;  perhaps  had  not  slept.  Over  his 
head  Goddedaal's  canary  twittered  shrilly  from  its  cage. 

"  How  are  you  ?  "  asked  Carthew. 

"  Me  arrum's  broke,"  returned  Mac ;  "  but  I  can  stand 
that.  It's  this  place  I  can't  abide.  I  was  coming  on 
deck  anyway." 

"  Stay  where  you  are,  though,"  said  Carthew.  "  It's 
deadly  hot  above,  and  there's  no  wind.  I'll  wash  out 
this  — "  and  he  paused,  seeking  a  word  and  not  finding 
one  for  the  grisly  foulness  of  the  cabin. 

"Faith,  I'll  be  obliged  to  ye,  then,"  replied  the  Irish- 
man. He  spoke  mild  and  meek,  like  a  sick  child  with 
its  mother.  There  was  now  no  violence  in  the  violent 
man;  and  as  Carthew  fetched  a  bucket  and  swab  and 
the  steward's  sponge,  and  began  to  cleanse  the  field  of 
battle,  he  alternately  watched  him  or  shut  his  eyes  and 
sighed  like  a  man  near  fainting.  "  I  have  to  ask  all 
your  pardons,"  he  began  again  presently,  "  and  the  more 
shame  to  me  as  I  got  ye  into  the  trouble  and  couldn't  do 
nothing  when  it  came.  Ye  saved  me  life,  sir ;  ye're  a 
clane  shot." 


A  BAD   BARGAIN.  619 

"  For  God's  sake,  don't  talk  of  it ! "  cried  Carthew. 
"  It  can't  be  talked  of ;  you  don't  know  what  it  was.  It 
was  nothing  down  here;  they  fought.  On  deck  —  0,  my 
God ! "  And  Carthew,  with  the  bloody  sponge  pressed  to 
his  face,  struggled  a  moment  with  hysteria. 

"Kape  cool,  Mr.  Cart'ew.  It's  done  now,"  said  Mac; 
"and  ye  may  bless  God  ye're  not  in  pain  and  helpless  in 
the  bargain," 

There  was  no  more  said  by  one  or  other,  and  the  cabin 
was  pretty  well  cleansed  when  a  stroke  on  the  ship's  bell 
summoned  Carthew  to  breakfast.  Tommy  had  been 
busy  in  the  meanwhile ;  he  had  hauled  the  whaleboat 
close  aboard,  and  already  lowered  into  it  a  small  keg  of 
beef  that  he  found  ready  broached  beside  the  galley 
door ;  it  was  plain  he  had  but  the  one  idea  —  to  escape. 

"  We  have  a  shipf ul  of  stores  to  draw  upon,"  he  said. 
"Well,  what  are  we  staying  for?  Let's  get  off  at  once 
for  Hawaii.     I've  begun  preparing  already." 

"  Mac  has  his  arm  broken,"  observed  Carthew ;  "  how 
would  he  stand  the  voyage  ?  " 

"  A  broken  arm  ?  "  repeated  the  captain.  "  That  all  ? 
I'll  set  it  after  breakfast.  I  thought  he  was  dead  like 
the  rest.  That  madman  hit  out  like — "  and  there,  at 
the  evocation  of  the  battle,  his  voice  ceased  and  the  talk 
died  with  it. 

After  breakfast,  the  three  white  men  went  down  into 
the  cabin. 

"  I've  come  to  set  your  arm,"  said  the  captain. 


520  THE   WRECKER. 

"  I  beg  your  pcardon,  Captaiu,"  replied  Mac ;  "  but  the 
firrst  thing  ye  got  to  do  is  to  get  this  ship  to  sea.  We'll 
talk  of  me  arrum  after  that." 

"  0,  there's  no  such  blooming  hurry,"  returned  Wicks. 

"  When  the  next  ship  sails  in,  ye'll  tell  me  stories  ! " 
retorted  Mac. 

"But  there's  nothing  so  unlikely  in  the  world," 
objected  Carthew. 

"Don't  be  deceivin'  yourself,"  said  Mac.  "If  ye 
want  a  ship,  divil  a  one'll  look  near  ye  in  six  year ;  but 
if  ye  don't,  ye  may  take  my  word  for  ut,  we'll  have  a 
squadron  layin'  here." 

"  That's  what  I  say,"  cried  Tommy  ;  "  that's  what  I 
call  sense  !     Let's  stock  that  whaleboat  and  be  off." 

"And  what  will  Captain  Wicks  be  thinking  of  the 
whaleboat  ?  "  asked  the  Irishman. 

"  I  don't  think  of  it  at  all,"  said  Wicks.  "  We've  a 
smart-looking  brig  under  foot;  that's  all  the  whaleboat  I 
want." 

"Excuse  me!"  cried  Tommy,  "That's  childish  talk. 
You've  got  a  brig,  to  be  sure,  and  what  use  is  she  ?  You 
daren't  go  anywhere  in  her.  What  port  are  you  to  sail 
for  ?  " 

"For  the  port  of  Davy  Jones's  Locker,  my  son," 
replied  the  captain.  "  This  brig's  going  to  be  lost  at 
sea.  I'll  tell  you  where,  too,  and  that's  about  forty  miles 
to  windward  of  Kauai.  We're  going  to  stay  by  her  till 
she's  down;   and  once  the   masts  are  under,  she's  the 


A  BAD   BARGAIN.  621 

Flying  Scud  no  more,  and  we  never  heard  of  such  a  brig ; 
and  it's  the  crew  of  the  schooner  Currency  Lass  that 
comes  ashore  in  the  boat,  and  takes  the  first  chance  to 
Sydney." 

"Captain  dear,  that's  the  first  Christian  word  I've 
heard  of  ut !  "  cried  Mac.  "  And  now,  just  let  me  arrum 
be,  jewel,  and  get  the  brig  outside." 

"  I'm  as  anxious  as  yourself,  Mac,"  returned  Wicks  ; 
"  but  there's  not  wind  enough  to  swear  by.  So  let's  see 
your  arm,  and  no  more  talk." 

The  arm  was  set  and  splinted ;  the  body  of  Brown 
fetched  from  the  forepeak,  where  it  lay  stiff  and  cold, 
and  committed  to  the  waters  of  the  lagoon  ;  and  the 
washing  of  the  cabin  rudely  finished.  All  these  were 
done  ere  midday ;  and  it  was  past  three  when  the  first 
cat's-paw  ruffled  the  lagoon,  and  the  wind  came  in  a  dry 
squall,  which  presently  sobered  to  a  steady  breeze. 

The  interval  was  passed  by  all  in  feverish  impatience, 
and  by  one  of  the  party  in  secret  and  extreme  concern  of 
mind.  Captain  Wicks  was  a  fore-and-aft  sailor ;  he  could 
take  a  schooner  through  a  Scotch  reel,  felt  her  mouth 
and  divined  her  temper  like  a  rider  with  a  horse  ;  she,  on 
her  side,  recognising  her  master  and  following  his  wishes 
like  a  dog.  But  by  a  not  very  unusual  train  of  circum- 
stance, the  man's  dexterity  was  partial  and  circum- 
scribed. On  a  schooner's  deck  he  was  Kembrandt  or  (at 
the  least)  Mr.  Whistler ;  on  board  a  brig  he  was  Pierre 
Grassou.     Again  and  again  in  the  course  of  the  morning, 


522  THE   WRECKER. 

lie  had  reasoned  out  his  policy  and  rehearsed  his 
orders ;  and  ever  with  the  same  depression  and  weari- 
ness. It  was  guess-work ;  it  was  chance ;  the  ship 
might  behave  as  he  expected,  and  might  not ;  suppose 
she  failed  him,  he  stood  there  helpless,  beggared  of  all 
the  proved  resources  of  experience.  Had  not  all  hands 
been  so  weary,  had  he  not  feared  to  communicate  his 
own  misgivings,  he  could  have  towed  her  out.  But 
these  reasons  sufficed,  and  the  most  he  could  do  was  to 
take  all  possible  precautions.  Accordingly  he  had  Car- 
thew  aft,  explained  what  was  to  be  done  with  anxious 
patience,  and  visited  along  with  him  the  various  sheets 
and  braces. 

"  I  hope  I'll  remember,"  said  Carthew.  "  It  seems 
awfully  muddled." 

"  It's  the  rottenest  kind  of  rig,"  the  captain  admitted : 
"  all  blooming  pocket  handkerchiefs  !  And  not  one  sailor- 
man  on  deck  !  Ah,  if  she'd  only  been  a  brigantine,  now  ! 
But  it's  lucky  the  passage  is  so  plain ;  there's  no  manoeu  • 
vring  to  mention.  "We  get  under  way  before  the  wind, 
and  run  right  so  till  we  begin  to  get  foul  of  the  island; 
then  we  haul  our  wind  and  lie  as  near  south-east  as  may 
be  till  we're  on  that  line ;  'bout  ship  there  and  stand 
straight  out  on  the  port  tack.     Catch  the  idea  ?  " 

"Yes,  I  see  the  idea,"  replied  Carthew  rather  dismally, 
and  the  two  incompetents  studied  for  a  long  time  in 
silence  the  complicated  gear  above  their  heads. 

But  the  time  came  when  these  rehearsals  must  be  put 


A   BAD   BARGAIN.  623 

in  practice.  The  sails  were  lowered,  and  all  hands 
heaved  the  anchor  short.  The  whaleboat  was  then 
cut  adrift,  the  upper  topsails  and  the  spanker  set,  the 
yards  braced  up,  and  the  spanker  sheet  hauled  out  to 
starboard. 

"  Heave  away  on  your  anchor,  Mr.  Carthew." 

"  Anchor's  gone,  sir." 

"Set  jibs." 

It  was  done,  and  the  brig  still  hung  enchanted. 
Wicks,  his  head  full  of  a  schooner's  mainsail,  turned  his 
mind  to  the  spanker.  First  he  hauled  in  the  sheet,  and 
then  he  hauled  it  out,  with  no  result. 

"  Brail  the  damned  thing  up  !  "  he  bawled  at  last,  with 
a  red  face.     "There  ain't  no  sense  in  it." 

It  was  the  last  stroke  of  bewilderment  for  the  poor 
captain,  that  he  had  no  sooner  brailed  up  the  spanker, 
than  the  schooner  came  before  the  wind.  The  laws  of 
nature  seemed  to  him  to  be  susjDended ;  he  was  like  a 
man  in  a  world  of  pantomime  tricks ;  the  cause  of  any 
result,  and  the  probable  result  of  any  action,  equally 
concealed  from  him.  He  was  the  more  careful  not  to 
shake  the  nerve  of  his  amateur  assistants.  He  stood 
there  with  a  face  like  a  torch;  but  he  gave  his  orders 
with  aplomb ;  and  indeed,  now  the  ship  was  under  way, 
supposed  his  difficulties  over. 

The  lower  topsails  and  courses  were  then  set,  and  the 
brig  began  to  walk  the  water  like  a  thing  of  life,  her 
forefoot  discoursing  music,  the  birds  flying  and  crying 


524  THE  WEECKER. 

over  her  spars.  Bit  by  bit  the  passage  began  to  open 
and  the  blue  sea  to  show  between  the  flanking  breakers 
ou  the  reef;  bit  by  bit,  on  the  starboard  bow,  the  low 
land  of  the  islet  began  to  heave  closer  aboard.  The 
yards  were  braced  up,  the  spanker  sheet  hauled  aft  again ; 
the  brig  was  close  hauled,  lay  down  to  her  work  like 
a  thing  in  earnest,  and  had  soon  drawn  near  to  the  point 
of  advantage,  where  she  might  stay  and  lie  out  of  the 
lagoon  in  a  single  tack. 

Wicks  took  the  wheel  himself,  sv/elling  with  success. 
He  kept  the  brig  full  to  give  her  heels,  and  began  to 
bark  his  orders :  "  Heady  about.  Helm's  a-lee.  Tacks 
and  sheets.  Mainsail  haul."  And  then  the  fatal  words : 
"That'll  do  your  mainsail";  jump  forrard  and  haul  round 
your  foreyards." 

To  stay  a  square-rigged  ship  is  an  affair  of  knowledge 
and  swift  sight;  and  a  man  used  to  the  succinct  evolu- 
tions of  a  schooner  will  always  tend  to  be  too  hasty  with 
a  brig.  It  was  so  now.  The  order  came  too  soon ;  the 
topsails  set  flat  aback ;  the  ship  was  in  irons.  Even  yet, 
had  the  helm  been  reversed,  they  might  have  saved  her. 
But  to  think  of  a  stern-board  at  all,  far  more  to  think  of 
profiting  by  one,  were  foreign  to  the  schooner-sailor's 
mind.  Wicks  made  haste  instead  to  wear  slii}),  a 
manoeuvre  for  which  room  was  wanting,  and  the  Flying 
Scud  took  ground  on  a  bank  of  sand  and  coral  about 
twenty  minutes  before  five. 

Wicks  was  no  hand  with  a  square-rigger,  and  ha  had 


A  BAD   BARGAIN.  525 

shown  it.  But  he  was  a  sailor  and  a  born  captain  of 
men  for  all  homely  purposes,  where  intellect  is  not 
required  and  an  eye  in  a  man's  head  and  a  heart  under 
his  jacket  will  suffice.  Before  the  others  had  time  to 
understand  the  misfortune,  he  was  bawling  fresh  orders, 
and  had  the  sails  clewed  up,  and  took  soundings  round 
the  ship. 

"She  lies  lovely,"  he  remarked,  and  ordered  out  a 
boat  with  the  starboard  anchor. 

''Here!  steady!"  cried  Tommy.  "  You  ain't  going  to 
turn  us  to,  to  warp  her  off  ?  " 

"  I  am  though,"  replied  Wicks. 

"I  won't  set  a  hand  to  such  tomfoolery  for  one," 
replied  Tommy.  "  I'm  deat  beat."  He  went  and  sat 
down  doggedly  on  the  main  hatch.  "  You  got  us  on ; 
get  us  off  again,"  he  added. 

Carthew  and  Wicks  turned  to  each  other. 

"Perhaps  you  don't  know  how  tired  we  are,"  said 
Carthew. 

"  The  tide's  flowing ! "  cried  the  captain.  "  You 
wouldn't  have  me  miss  a  rising  tide  ?  " 

"  0  gammon !  there's  tides  to-morrow  !  "  retorted 
Tommy. 

"And  I'll  tell  you  what,"  added  Carthew,  "the  breeze 
is  failing  fast,  and  the  sun  will  soon  be  down.  We 
may  get  into  all  kinds  of  fresh  mess  in  the  dark  and 
with  nothing  but  light  airs." 

"  I  don't  deny  it,"  answered  Wicks,  and  stood  awhile 


626  THE   WRECKER. 

as  if  in  thought.  "But  what  I  can't  make  out,"  he 
began  again,  with  agitation,  "  what  I  can't  make  out  is 
what  you're  made  of !  To  stay  in  this  place  is  beyond 
me.  There's  the  bloody  sun  going  down  —  and  to  stay 
here  is  beyond  me  ! " 

The  others  looked  upon  him  with  horrified  surprise. 
This  fall  of  their  chief  pillar  —  this  irrational  passion  in 
the  practical  man,  suddenly  barred  out  of  his  true 
sphere,  the  sphere  of  action  —  shocked  and  daunted 
them.  But  it  gave  to  another  and  unseen  hearer  the 
chance  for  which  he  had  been  waiting.  Mac,  on  the 
striking  of  the  brig,  had  crawled  up  the  companion,  and 
he  now  showed  himself  and  spoke  up. 

"  Captain  Wicks,"  he  said,  "  it's  me  that  brought 
this  trouble  on  the  lot  of  ye.  I'm  sorry  for  ut,  I  ask  all 
your  pardons,  and  if  there's  any  one  can  say  'I  forgive 
ye,'  it'll  make  my  soul  the  lighter." 

Wicks  stared  upon  the  man  in  amaze ;  then  his  self- 
control  returned  to  him.  "We're  all  in  glass  houses 
here,"  he  said ;  "  we  ain't  going  to  turn  to  and  throw 
stones.  I  forgive  you,  sure  enough;  and  much  good 
may  it  do  you  ! " 

The  others  spoke  to  the  same  purpose. 

"  I  thank  ye  for  ut,  and  'tis  done  like  gentlemen,"  said 
Mac.  "  But  there's  another  thing  I  have  upon  my  mind. 
I  hope  we're  all  Prodestan's  here  ?  " 

It  appeared  they  were;  it  seemed  a  small  thing  for 
the  Protestant  religion  to  rejoice  in  ! 


A  BAD  BARGAIN.  627 

"Well,  that's  as  it  should  be,"  continued  Mac.  "And 
why  shouldn't  we  say  the  Lord's  Prayer  ?  There  can't 
be  no  hurt  in  ut." 

He  had  the  same  quiet,  pleading,  childlike  way  with 
him  as  in  the  morning;  and  the  others  accepted  his 
proposal,  and  knelt  down  without  a  word. 

"  Knale  if  ye  like ! "  said  he.  "  I  stand."  And  he 
covered  his  eyes. 

So  the  prayer  was  said  to  the  accompaniment  of  the 
surf  and  seabirds,  and  all  rose  refreshed  and  felt 
lightened  of  a  load.  Up  to  then,  they  had  cherished 
their  guilty  memories  in  private,  or  only  referred  to 
them  in  the  heat  of  a  moment  and  fallen  immediately 
silent.  Now  they  had  faced  their  remorse  in  company, 
and  the  worst  seemed  over.  Nor  was  it  only  that.  But 
the  petition  "Forgive  us  our  trespasses,"  falling  in  so 
apposite  after  they  had  themselves  forgiven  the  imme- 
diate author  of  their  miseries,  sounded  like  an  absolu- 
tion. 

Tea  was  taken  on  deck  in  the  time  of  the  sunset,  and 
not  long  after  the  five  castaways  — castaways  once  more 
—  lay  down  to  sleep. 

Day  dawned  windless  and  hot.  Their  slumbers  had 
been  too  profound  to  be  refreshing,  and  they  woke  list- 
less, and  sat  up,  and  stared  about  them  with  dull  eyes. 
Only  Wicks,  smelling  a  hard  day's  work  ahead,  was  more 
alert.  He  went  first  to  the  well,  sounded  it  once  and 
then  a  second  time,  and  stood  awhile  with  a  grim  look, 


528  THE   WRECKER. 

SO  that  all  could  see  he  was  dissatisfied.  Then  he  shook 
himself,  stripped  to  the  buff,  clambered  on  the  rail,  drew 
himself  up  and  raised  his  arms  to  plunge.  The  dive 
was  never  taken.  He  stood  instead  transfixed,  his  eyes 
on  the  horizon. 

"  Hand  up  that  glass,"  he  said. 

In  a  trice  they  were  all  swarming  aloft,  the  nude  cap- 
tain leading  with  the  glass. 

On  the  northern  horizon  was  a  finger  of  grey  smoke, 
straight  in  the  windless  air  like  a  point  of  admiration. 

"  What  do  you  make  it  ?  "  they  asked  of  Wicks. 

"  She's  truck  down,"  he  replied  ;  "  no  telling  yet.  By 
the  way  the  smoke  builds,  she  must  be  heading  right 
here." 

"  What  can  she  be  ?  " 

"  She  might  be  the  China  mail,"  returned  Wicks,  "  and 
she  might  be  a  blooming  man-of-war,  come  to  look  for 
castaways.  Here  !  This  ain't  the  time  to  stand  staring. 
On  deck,  boys ! " 

He  was  the  first  on  deck,  as  he  had  been  the  first  aloft, 
handed  down  the  ensign,  bent  it  again  to  the  signal  hal- 
liards, and  ran  it  up  union  down. 

"  Xow  hear  me,"  he  said,  jumping  into  his  trousers, 
"  and  everything  I  say  you  grip  on  to.  If  that's  a  man- 
of-war,  she'll  be  in  a  tearing  hurry ;  all  these  ships  are 
what  don't  do  nothing  and  have  their  expenses  paid. 
That's  our  chance ;  for  we'll  go  with  them,  and  they 
won't  take  the  time  to  look  twice  or  to  ask  a  question. 


A  BAD   BARGAIN.  629 

I'm  Captain  Trent ;  Carthew,  you're  Goddedaal ;  Tommy, 
you're  Hardy ;  Mac's  Brown ;  Amalu  —  Hold  hard  ! 
we  can't  make  a  Chinaman  of  him !  Ah,  Wing  must 
have  deserted ;  Amalu  stowed  away ;  and  I  turned  him 
to  as  cook,  and  was  never  at  the  bother  to  sign  him. 
Catch  the  idea  ?     Say  your  names." 

And  that  pale  company  recited  their  lesson  earnestl3\ 

"  What  were  the  names  of  the  other  two  ?  "  he  asked. 
"Him  Carthew  shot  in  the  companion,  and  the  one  I 
caught  in  the  jaw  on  the  main  top-gallant  ?  " 

"  Holdorsen  and  Wallen,"  said  some  one. 

"  Well,  they're  drowned,"  continued  Wicks ;  "  drowned 
alongside  trying  to  lower  a  boat.  We  had  a  bit  of  a 
squall  last  night :  that's  how  we  got  ashore."  He  ran 
and  squinted  at  the  compass.  "  Squall  out  of  nor'-nor'- 
west-half-west ;  blew  hard;  every  one  in  a  mess,  falls 
jammed,  and  Holdorsen  and  Wallen  spilt  overboard. 
See  ?  Clear  your  blooming  heads !  "  He  was  in  his 
jacket  now,  and  spoke  with  a  feverish  impatience  and 
contention  that  rang  like  anger. 

'*  But  is  it  safe  ?  "  asked  Tommy. 

"  Safe  ?  "  bellowed  the  captain.  "  We're  standing  on 
the  drop,  you  moon-calf !  If  that  ship's  bound  for  China 
(which  she  don't  look  to  be),  we're  lost  as  soon  as  we 
arrive ;  if  she's  bound  the  other  way,  she  comes  from 
China,  don't  she  ?  Well,  if  there's  a  man  on  board  of 
her  that  ever  clapped  eyes  on  Trent  or  any  blooming 
hand  out  of  this  brig,  we'll  all  be  in  irons  in  two  hours. 


530  THE   WRECKER. 

Safe !  no,  it  ain't  safe ;  it's  a  beggarly  last  chance  to 
shave  the  gallows,  and  that's  what  it  is." 

At  this  convincing  picture,  fear  took  hold  on  all. 

"  Hadn't  we  a  hundred  times  better  stay  by  the  brig  ?  " 
cried  Carthew.  "  They  would  give  us  a  hand  to  float  her 
off." 

"You'll  make  me  waste  this  holy  day  in  chattering!" 
cried  Wicks.  "Look  here,  when  I  sounded  the  well 
this  morning,  there  was  two  foot  of  water  there  against 
eight  inches  last  night.  What's  wrong  ?  I  don't  know ; 
might  be  nothing;  might  be  the  worst  kind  of  smash. 
And  then,  there  we  are  in  for  a  thousand  miles  in  an 
open  boat,  if  that's  your  taste  ! " 

"But  it  may  be  nothing,  and  anyway  their  carpenters 
are  bound  to  help  us  repair  her,"  argued  Carthew. 

"  Moses  Murphy  !  "  cried  the  captain.  "  How  did  she 
strike?  Bows  on,  I  believe.  And  she's  down  by  the 
head  now.  If  any  carpenter  comes  tinkering  here, 
where'll  he  go  first  ?  Down  in  the  forepeak,  I  suppose ! 
And  then,  how  about  all  that  blood  among  the  chand- 
lery ?  You  would  think  you  were  a  lot  of  members  of 
Parliament  discussing  PlimsoU ;  and  you're  just  a  pack 
of  murderers  with  the  halter  round  your  neck.  Any  other 
ass  got  any  time  to  waste  ?  No  ?  Thank  God  for  that ! 
Now,  all  hands  !  I'm  going  below,  and  I  leave  you  here 
on  deck.  You  get  the  boat  cover  off  that  boat ;  then 
you  turn  to  and  open  the  specie  chest.  There  are  five 
of  us ;  get  five  chests,  and  divide  the  specie  equal  among 


A   BAD   BARGAIN.  531 

the  five  —  put  it  at  the  bottom  —  and  go  at  it  like 
tigers.  Get  blankets,  or  canvas,  or  clothes,  so  it  won't 
rattle.  It'll  make  five  pretty  heavy  chests,  but  we  can't 
help  that.  You,  Carthew  —  dash  me  !  — You,  Mr.  Godde- 
daal,  come  below.     We've  our  share  before  us." 

And  he  cast  another  glance  at  the  smoke,  and  hurried 
below  with  Carthew  at  his  heels. 

The  logs  were  found  in  the  main  cabin  behind  the 
canary's  cage  ;  two  of  them,  one  kept  by  Trent,  one  by 
Goddedaal.  Wicks  looked  first  at  one,  then  at  the  other, 
and  his  lip  stuck  out. 

"  Can  you  forge  hand  of  write  ?  "  he  asked. 

"No,"  said  Carthew. 

"  There's  luck  for  you  —  no  more  can  I ! "  cried  the 
captain.  "Hullo!  here's  worse  yet,  here's  this  Godde- 
daal up  to  date ;  he  must  have  filled  it  in  before  supper. 
See  for  yourself :  'Smoke  observed.  —  Captain  Kirkup 
and  five  hands  of  the  schooner  Currency  Lass.'  Ah  ! 
this  is  better,"  he  added,  turning  to  the  other  log.  "  The 
old  man  ain't  written  anything  for  a  clear  fortnight. 
We'll  dispose  of  your  log  altogether,  Mr.  Goddedaal,  and 
stick  to  the  old  man's  —  to  mine,  I  mean ;  only  I  aint 
going  to  write  it  up,  for  reasons  of  my  own.  You  are. 
You're  going  to  sit  down  right  here  and  fill  it  in  the  way 
I  tell  you." 

"  How  to  explain  the  loss  of  mine  ?  "  asked  Carthew. 

"  You  never  kept  one,"  replied  the  captain.  "  Gross 
neglect  of  duty.     You'll  catch  it." 


532  THE   WRECKER. 

"  And  the  change  of  writing  ? "  resiimed  Carthew. 
"  You  began  ;  why  do  you  stop  and  why  do  I  come  in  ? 
And  you'll  have  to  sign  anyway." 

"  0 !  I've  met  with  an  accident  and  can't  write,"  re- 
plied Wicks. 

"  An  accident  ?  "  repeated  Carthew.  "  It  don't  sound 
natural.     What  kind  of  an  accident  ?  " 

Wicks  spread  his  hand  face-up  on  the  table,  and  drove 
a  knife  through  his  palm. 

"  That  kind  of  an  accident,"  said  he.  "  There's  a 
way  to  draw  to  windward  of  most  difficulties,  if  you've  a 
head  on  your  shoulders."  He  began  to  bind  up  his  hand 
with  a  handkerchief,  glancing  the  while  over  Goddedaal's 
log.  "Hullo!"  he  said,  "this'll  never  do  for  us  —  this  is 
an  impossible  kind  of  a  yarn.  Here,  to  begin  with,  is  this 
Captain  Trent  trying  some  fancy  course,  leastways  he's 
a  thousand  miles  to  south'ard  of  the  great  circle.  And 
here,  it  seems,  he  was  close  up  with  this  island  on  the 
sixth,  sails  all  these  days,  and  is  close  up  with  it  again 
by  daylight  on  the  eleventh." 

"Goddedaal  said  they  had  the  deuce's  luck,"  said 
Carthew. 

"  Well,  it  don't  look  like  real  life  —  that's  all  I  can 
say,"  returned  Wicks. 

"  It's  the  way  it  was,  though,"  argued  Carthew. 

"So  it  is;  and  what  the  better  are  we  for  that,  if  it 
don't  look  so  ?  "  cried  the  captain,  sounding  unwonted 
depths  of  art  criticism.  "  Here  !  try  and  see  if  you  can't 
tie  this  bandage  ;  I'm  bleeding  like  a  pig." 


A   BAD   I5AKGAIN.  533 

As  Carthew  sought  to  adjust  the  handkerchief,  his 
patient  seemed  sunk  in  a  deep  muse,  his  eye  veiled,  his 
mouth  partly  open.  The  job  was  yet  scarce  done,  when 
he  sprang  to  his  feet. 

"I  have  it,"«>he  broke  out,  and  ran  on  deck.  "Here, 
boys  ! "  he  cried,  "  we  didn't  come  here  on  the  eleventh ; 
we  came  in  here  on  the  evening  of  the  sixth,  and  lay 
here  ever  since  becalmed.  As  soon  as  you're  done  with 
these  chests,"  he  added,  "you  can  turn  to  and  roll  out 
beef  and  water  breakers ;  it'll  look  more  shipshape  — 
like  as  if  we  were  getting  ready  for  the  boat  voyage." 

And  he  was  back  again  in  a  moment,  cooking  the  new 
log.  Goddedaal's  was  then  carefully  destroyed,  and  a 
hunt  began  for  the  ship's  papers.  Of  all  the  agonies  of 
that  breathless  morning,  this  was  perhaps  the  most 
poignant.  Here  and  there  the  two  men  searched,  curs- 
ing, cannoning  together,  streaming  with  heat,  freezing 
with  terror.  News  was  bawled  down  to  them  that  the 
ship  was  indeed  a  man-of-war,  that  she  was  close  up, 
that  she  was  lowering  a  boat ;  and  still  they  sought  in 
vain.  By  what  accident  they  missed  the  iron  box  with 
the  money  and  accounts,  is  hard  to  fancy ;  but  they  did. 
And  the  vital  documents  were  found  at  last  in  the  pocket 
of  Trent's  shore-going  coat,  where  he  had  left  them  when 
last  he  came  on  board. 

Wicks  smiled  for  the  first  time  that  morning.  "  None 
too  soon,"  said  he.  "  And  now  for  it !  Take  these 
others  for  me ;  I'm  afraid  I'll  get  them  mixed  if  I  keep 
both." 


534  THE   WRECKER. 

"  What  are  they  ?  "  Carthew  asked. 

"  They're  the  Kirkup  and  Currency  Lass  papers,"  he 
replied.     "  Pray  God  we  need  'em  again ! " 

"  Boat's  inside  the  lagoon,  sir,"  hailed  down  Mac,  who 
sat  by  the  skylight  doing  sentry  while  the  others  worked. 

"Time  we  were  on  deck,  then,  Mr.  Goddedaal,"  said 
Wicks. 

As  they  turned  to  leave  the  cabin,  the  canary  burst 
into  piercing  song. 

"  My  God ! "  cried  Carthew,  with  a  gulp,  "  we  can't  leave 
that  wretched  bird  to  starve.     It  was  poor  Goddedaal's." 

"  Bring  the  bally  thing  along  ! "  cried  the  captain. 

And  they  went  on  deck. 

An  ugly  brute  of  a  modern  "man-of-war  lay  just  with- 
out the  reef,  now  quite  inert,  now  giving  a  flap  or  two 
with  her  propeller.  Nearer  hand,  and  just  within,  a  big 
white  boat  came  skimming  to  the  stroke  of  many  oars, 
her  ensign  blowing  at  the  stern. 

"  One  word  more,"  said  Wicks,  after  he  had  taken  in 
the  scene.  "  Mac,  you've  been  in  China  ports  ?  All 
right ;  then  you  can  speak  for  yourself.  The  rest  of  you 
I  kept  on  board  all  the  time  we  were  in  Hongkong,  hop- 
ing you  would  desert ;  but  you  fooled  me  and  stuck  to 
the  brig.     That'll  make  your  lying  come  easier." 

The  boat  was  now  close  at  hand ;  a  boy  in  the  stern 
sheets  was  the  only  officer,  and  a  poor  one  plainly,  for 
the  men  were  talking  as  they  pulled. 

"Thank  God,  they've  only  sent  a  kind  of  a  middy!" 


A   BAD   BxUtGAIN.  535 

ejaculated  Wicks.  "  Here  you,  Hardy,  stand  for'ard  ! 
I'll  have  no  deck  hands  on  my  quarter-deck,"  he  cried, 
and  the  reproof  braced  the  whole  crew  like  a  cold 
douche. 

The  boat  came  alongside  with  perfect  neatness,  and 
the  boy  officer  stepped  on  board,  where  he  was  respect- 
fully greeted  by  Wicks. 

"  You  the  master  of  this  ship  ?  "  he  asked. 

"  Yes,  sir,"  said  Wicks.  *'  Trent  is  my  name,  and  this 
is  the  Flying  Scud  of  Hull." 

"You  seem  to  have  got  into  a  mess,"  said  the  officer. 

"  If  you'll  step  aft  with  me  here,  I'll  tell  you  all  there 
is  of  it,"  said  Wicks. 

"Why,  man,  you're  shaking!  "  cried  the  officer. 

"  So  would  you,  perhaps,  if  you  had  been  in  the  same 
berth,"  returned  Wicks ;  and  he  told  the  whole  story  of 
the  rotten  water,  the  long  calm,  the  squall,  the  seamen 
drowned;  glibly  and  hotly  ;  talking,  with  his  head  in  the 
lion's  mouth,  like  one  pleading  in  the  dock.  I  heard  the 
same  tale  from  the  same  narrator  in  the  saloon  in  San 
Francisco ;  and  even  then  his  bearing  filled  me  with  sus- 
picion.    But  the  officer  was  no  observer. 

"Well,  the  captain  is  in  no  end  of  a  hurry,"  said  he; 
"but  I  was  instructed  to  give  you  all  the  assistance  in 
my  power,  and  signal  back  for  another  boat  if  more 
hands  were  necessary.     What  can  I  do  for  you  ?  " 

"  0,  we  won't  keep  j^ou  no  time,"  replied  Wicks, 
cheerily.  "  We're  all  ready,  bless  you  —  men's  chests, 
chronometer,  papers  and  all." 


536  THE   WRECKER. 

"  Do  you  mean  to  leave  her  ?  "  cried  the  officer.  "  She 
seems  to  me  to  lie  nicely  ;  can't  we  get  your  ship  off  ?  " 

"  So  we  could,  and  no  mistake  ;  but  how  we're  to  keep 
her  afloat's  another  question.  Her  bows  is  stove  in," 
replied  Wicks. 

The  officer  coloured  to  the  eyes.  He  was  incompe- 
tent and  knew  he  was ;  thought  he  was  already  detected, 
and  feared  to  expose  himself  again.  There  was  nothing 
further  from  his  mind  than  that  the  captain  should 
deceive  him;  if  the  captain  was  pleased,  why,  so  was 
he.  "  All  right,"  he  said.  "  Tell  your  men  to  get  their 
chests  aboard." 

"  Mr.  Goddedaal,  turn  the  hands  to  to  get  the  chests 
aboard,"  said  Wicks. 

The  four  Currency  Lasses  had  waited  the  while  on 
tenter-hooks.  This  welcome  news  broke  upon  them  like 
the  sun  at  midnight ;  and  Hadden  burst  into  a  storm  of 
tears,  sobbing  aloud  as  he  heaved  upon  the  tackle.  But 
the  work  went  none  the  less  briskly  forward ;  chests, 
men,  and  bundles  were  got  over  the  side  with  alacrity ; 
the  boat  was  shoved  off ;  it  moved  out  of  the  long  shadow 
of  the  Flying  Scud,  and  its  bows  were  pointed  at  the 
passage. 

So  much,  then,  was  accomplished.  The  sham  wreck 
had  passed  muster ;  they  were  clear  of  her,  they  were 
safe  away ;  and  the  water  widened  between  them  and 
her  damning  evidences.  On  the  other  hand,  they  were 
drawing  nearer  to  the  ship   of  war,  which  might  very 


A  BAD   BAEGAIN.  637 

well  prove  to  be  their  prison  and  a  hangman's  cart  to 
bear  them  to  the  gallows  —  of  which  they  had  not  yet 
learned  either  whence  she  came  or  whither  she  was  bound ; 
and  the  doubt  weighed  upon  their  heart  like  mountains. 

It  was  Wicks  who  did  the  talking.  The  sound  was 
small  in  Carthew's  ears,  like  the  voices  of  men  miles 
away,  but  the  meaning  of  each  word  struck  home  to  him 
like  a  bullet.  "  What  did  you  say  your  ship  was  ?  "  in- 
quired Wicks. 

"  Tempest,  don't  you  know  ?  "  returned  the  ofiBcer. 

Don't  you  know  ?  What  could  that  mean  ?  Per- 
haps nothing :  perhaps  that  the  ships  had  met  already. 
Wicks  took  his  courage  in  both  hands.  "  Where  is  she 
bound  ?  "  he  asked. 

"  0,  we're  just  looking  in  at  all  these  miserable  islands 
here,"  said  the  officer.  ''  Then  we  bear  up  for  San 
Francisco." 

"  0,  yes,  you're  from  China  ways,  like  us  ?  "  pursued 
Wicks. 

"  Hong  Kong,"  said  the  officer,  and  spat  over  the  side. 

Hong  Kong.  Then  the  game  was  up ;  as  soon  as  they 
set  foot  on  board,  they  would  be  seized ;  the  wreck 
would  be  examined,  the  blood  found,  the  lagoon  perhaps 
dredged,  and  the  bodies  of  the  dead  would  reappear  to 
testify.  An  impulse  almost  incontrollable  bade  Car- 
thew  rise  from  the  thwart,  shriek  out  aloud,  and  leap 
overboard  ;  it  seemed  so  vain  a  thing  to  dissemble  longer, 
to  dally  with  the  inevitable,  to  spin  out  some  hundred 


538     ■  THE  WRECKER. 

seconds  more  of  agonised  suspense,  with  shame  and 
death  thus  visibly  approaching.  But  the  indomitable 
"Wicks  persevered.  His  face  was  like  a  skull,  his  voice 
scarce  recognisable ;  the  dullest  of  men  and  officers  (it 
seemed)  must  have  remarked  that  telltale  countenance 
and  broken  utterance.  And  still  he  persevered,  bent 
upon  certitude. 

"Nice  place,  Hong  Kong  ?  "  he  said. 

"I'm  sure  I  don't  know,"  said  the  officer.  "Only  a  day 
and  a  half  there  ;  called  for  orders  and  came  straight  on 
here.  Never  heard  of  such  a  beastly  cruise."  And  he 
went  on  describing  and  lamenting  the  untoward  fortunes 
of  the  Tempest. 

But  Wicks  and  Carthew  heeded  him  no  longer.  They 
lay  back  on  the  gunnel,  breathing  deep,  sunk  in  a  stupor 
of  the  body  :  the  mind  within  still  nimbly  and  agreeably 
at  work,  measuring  the  past  danger,  exulting  in  the  pres- 
ent relief,  numbering  with  ecstasy  their  ultimate  chances 
of  escape.  For  the  voyage  in  the  man-of-war  they  were 
now  safe ;  yet  a  few  more  days  of  peril,  activity,  and  pres- 
ence of  mind  in  San  Francisco,  and  the  whole  horrid  tale 
was  blotted  out ;  and  Wicks  again  became  Kirkup,  and 
Groddedaal  became  Carthew  —  men  beyond  all  shot  of 
possible  suspicion,  men  who  had  never  heard  of  the  Fly- 
ing Scud,  who  had  never  been  in  sight  of  Midway  Eeef. 

So  they  came  alongside,  under  many  craning  heads  of 
seamen  and  projecting  mouths  of  guns ;  so  they  climbed 
on  board  somnambulous,  and  looked  blindly  about  them 


A   BAD   BARGAIN.  639 

at  tlie  tall  spars,  the  white  decks,  and  the  crowding  ship's 
company,  and  heard  men  as  from  far  away,  and  answered 
them  at  random. 

And  then  a  hand  fell  softly  on  Carthew's  shoulder. 

"Why,  Norrie,  old  chappie,  where  have  you  dropped 
from  ?  All  the  world's  been  looking  for  you.  Don't 
you  know  you've  come  into  your  kingdom  ?  " 

He  turned,  beheld  the  face  of  his  old  schoolmate  Se- 
bright, and  fell  unconscious  at  his  feet. 

The  doctor  was  attending  him,  awhile  later,  in  Lieu- 
tenant Sebright's  cabin,  when  he  came  to  himself.  He 
opened  his  eyes,  looked  hard  in  the  strange  face,  and 
spoke  with  a  kind  of  solemn  vigour. 

"Brown  must  go  the  same  road,"  he  said;  "now  or 
never."  And  then  paused,  and  his  reason  coming  to  him 
with  more  clearness,  spoke  again :  "  What  was  I  saying  ? 
Where  am  I  ?     Who  are  you  ?  " 

"I  am  the  doctor  of  the  Tempest,''^  was  the  reply. 
"You  are  in  Lieutenant  Sebright's  berth,  and  you  may 
dismiss  all  concern  from  your  mind.  Your  troubles  are 
over,  Mr.  Carthew." 

"  Why  do  you  call  me  that  ?  "  he  asked.  "  Ah,  I  re- 
member —  Sebright  knew  me  !  0  !  "  and  he  groaned 
and  shook.  "  Send  down  Wicks  to  me ;  I  must  see 
Wicks  at  once  !  "  he  cried,  and  seized  the  doctor's  wrist 
■with  unconscious  violence. 

"All  right,"  said  the  doctor.  "Let's  make  a  bargain. 
You  swallow  down  this  draught,  and  I'll  go  and  fetch 
Wicks." 


540  THE   WRECKER. 

And  he  gave  the  wretched  man  an  opiate  that  laid  him 
out  within  ten  minutes  and  in  all  likelihood  preserved 
his  reason. 

It  was  the  doctor's  next  business  to  attend  to  Mac; 
and  he  found  occasion,  while  engaged  upon  his  arm,  to 
make  the  man  repeat  the  names  of  the  rescued  crew. 
It  was  now  the  turn  of  the  captain,  and  there  is  no  doubt 
he  was  no  longer  the  man  that  we  have  seen ;  sudden 
relief,  the  sense  of  perfect  safety,  a  square  meal  and 
a  good  glass  of  grog,  had  all  combined  to  relax  his  vigi- 
lance and  depress  his  energy. 

"When  was  this  done  ?  "  asked  the  doctor,  looking  at 
the  wound. 

"More  than  a  week  ago,"  replied  Wicks,  thinking 
singly  of  his  log. 

"  Hey  ?  "  cried  the  doctor,  and  he  raised  his  head  and 
looked  the  captain  in  the  eyes. 

"  I  don't  remember  exactly,"  faltered  Wicks. 

And  at  this  remarkable  falsehood,  the  suspicions  of 
the  doctor  were  at  once  quadrupled. 

"By  the  way,  which  of  you  is  called  Wicks  ?  "  he  asked 
easily. 

"  What's  that  ?  "  snapped  the  captain,  falling  white 
as  paper. 

"Wicks,"  repeated  the  doctor;  "which  of  you  is  he? 
that's  surely  a  plain  question." 

Wicks  stared  upon  his  questioner  in  silence. 

"  Which  is  Brown,  then  ?  "  pursued  the  doctor. 


A  BAD   BARGAIN.  641 

"  What  are  you  talking  of  ?  what  do  you  mean  by 
this  ? "  cried  Wicks,  snatching  his  half-bandaged  hand 
away,  so  that  the  blood  sprinkled  in  the  surgeon's  face. 

He  did  not  trouble  to  remove  it.  Looking  straight  at 
his  victim,  he  pursued  his  questions.  "Why  must 
Brown  go  the  same  way  ?  "  he  asked. 

Wicks  fell  trembling  on  a  locker.  "Carthew's  told 
you,"  he  cried. 

"No,"  replied  the  doctor,  "he  has  not.  But  he  and 
you  between  you  have  set  me  thinking,  and  I  think 
there's  something  wrong." 

"Give  me  some  grog,"  said  Wicks.  "I'd  rather  tell 
than  have  you  find  out.  I'm  damned  if  it's  half  as  bad 
as  what  any  one  would  think." 

And  with  the  help  of  a  couple  of  strong  grogs,  the 
tragedy  of  the  Flying  Scud  was  told  for  the  first  time. 

It  was  a  fortunate  series  of  accidents  that  brought  the 
story  to  the  doctor.  He  understood  and  pitied  the  posi- 
tion of  these  wretched  men,  and  came  whole-heartedly 
to  their  assistance.  He  and  Wicks  and  Carthew  (so 
soon  as  he  was  recovered)  held  a  hundred  councils  and 
prepared  a  policy  for  San  Francisco.  It  was  he  who 
certified  "Goddedaal"  unfit  to  be  moved  and  smuggled 
Carthew  ashore  under  cloud  of  night ;  it  was  he  who 
kept  Wicks's  wound  open  that  he  might  sign  with 
his  left  hand ;  he  who  took  all  their  Chile  silver 
and  (in  the  course  of  the  first  day)  got  it  converted 
for  them  into  portable  gold.     He  used  his  influence  in 


542  THE   WRECKER. 

the  wardroom  to  keep  the  tongues  of  the  young  officers 
in  order,  so  that  Carthew's  identification  was  kept  out  of 
the  papers.  And  he  rendered  another  service  yet  more 
important.  He  had  a  friend  in  San  Francisco,  a  million- 
aire; to  this  man  he  privately  presented  Carthew  as  a 
young  gentleman  come  newly  into  a  huge  estate,  but 
troubled  with  Jew  debts  which  he  was  trying  to  settle 
on  the  quiet.  The  millionaire  came  readily  to  help; 
and  it  was  with  his  money  that  the  wrecker  gang  was 
to  be  fought.  What  was  his  name,  out  of  a  thousand 
guesses  ?     It  was  Douglas  Longhurst. 

As  long  as  the  Currency  Lasses  could  all  disappear 
under  fresh  names,  it  did  not  greatly  matter  if  the  brig 
were  bought,  or  any  small  discrepancies  should  be  dis- 
covered in  the  wrecking.  The  identification  of  one  of 
their  number  had  changed  all  that.  The  smallest  scan- 
dal must  now  direct  attention  to  the  movements  of  Nor- 
ris.  It  would  be  asked  how  he,  who  had  sailed  in  a 
schooner  from  Sydney,  had  turned  up  so  shortly  after  in 
a  brig  out  of  Hong  Kong;  and  from  one  question  to 
another  all  his  original  shipmates  were  pretty  sure  to  be 
involved.  Hence  arose  naturally  the  idea  of  preventing 
danger,  profiting  by  Carthew's  new-found  wealth,  and 
buying  the  brig  under  an  alias ;  and  it  was  put  in  hand 
with  equal  energy  and  caution.  Carthew  took  lodgings 
alone  under  a  false  name,  picked  up  Bellairs  at  random, 
and  commissioned  him  to  buy  the  wreck. 

''  What  figure,  if  you  please  ?  "  the  lawyer  asked. 


A    BAD   BARGAIN.  543 

"  I  want  it  bought,"  replied  Carthew.  "  I  don't  mind 
about  the  price." 

"  Any  price  is  no  price,"  said  Bellairs.  "  Put  a  name 
upon  it." 

"  Call  it  ten  thousand  pounds  then,  if  you  like  !  "  said 
Carthew. 

In  the  meanwhile,  the  captain  had  to  walk  the  streets, 
appear  in  the  consulate,  be  cross-examined  by  Lloyd's 
agent,  be  badgered  about  his  lost  accounts,  sign  jDapers 
with  his  left  hand,  and  rej)eat  his  lies  to  every  skipper 
in  San  Francisco :  not  knowing  at  what  moment  he 
might  run  into  the  arms  of  some  old  friend  who  should 
hail  him  by  the  name  of  Wicks,  or  some  new  enemy 
who  should  be  in  a  position  to  deny  him  that  of  Trent. 
And  the  latter  incident  did  actually  befall  him,  but  was 
transformed  by  his  stout  countenance  into  an  element 
of  strength.  It  was  in  the  consulate  (of  all  untoward 
places)  that  he  suddenly  heard  a  big  voice  inquiring  for 
Captain  Trent.  He  turned  with  the  customary  sinking 
at  his  heart. 

"  Fow  ain't  Captain  Trent!"  said  the  stranger,  falling 
back.  "  Why,  what's  all  this  ?  They  tell  me  you're 
passing  off  as  Captain  Trent  —  Captain  Jacob  Trent  — 
a  man  I  knew  since  I  was  that  high." 

"  0,  you're  thinking  of  my  uncle  as  had  the  bank  in 
Cardiff,"  replied  Wicks,  with  desperate  aplomb. 

"  I  declare  I  never  knew  he  had  a  nevvy  ! "  said  the 
stranger. 


544  THE   WRECKER. 

"  Well,  you  see  he  has  ! "  says  Wicks. 

"  And  how  is  the  old  man  ?  "  asked  the  other. 

''Fit  as  a  fiddle,"  answered  Wicks,  and  was  oppor- 
tunely summoned  by  the  clerk. 

This  alert  was  the  only  one  until  the  morning  of  the 
sale,  when  he  was  once  more  alarmed  by  his  interview 
with  Jim ;  and  it  was  with  some  anxiety  that  he  attended 
the  sale,  knowing  only  that  Carthew  was  to  be  repre- 
sented, but  neither  who  was  to  represent  him  nor 
what  were  the  instructions  given.  I  suppose  Captain 
Wicks  is  a  good  life.  In  spite  of  his  personal  appear- 
ance and  his  own  known  uneasiness,  I  suppose  he  is 
secure  from  apoplexy,  or  it  must  have  struck  him 
there  and  then,  as  he  looked  on  at  the  stages  of 
that  insane  sale  and  saw  the  old  brig  and  her  not  very 
valuable  cargo  knocked  down  at  last  to  a  total  stranger 
for  ten  thousand  pounds. 

It  had  been  agreed  that  he  was  to  avoid  Carthew, 
and  above  all  Carthew's  lodging,  so  that  no  connexion 
might  be  traced  between  the  crew  and  the  pseudonymous 
purchaser.  But  the  hour  for  caution  was  gone  by,  and 
he  caught  a  tram  and  made  all  speed  to  Mission  Street. 

Carthew  met  him  in  the  door. 

"Come  away,  come  away  from  here,"  said  Carthew; 
and  when  they  were  clear  of  the  house,  "  All's  up ! "  he 
added. 

"  0,  you've  heard  of  the  sale  then  ?  "  said  Wicks. 

"  The  sale  !  "   cried  Carthew.     "  I  declare  I  had  for- 


epilogue:  to  will  h.  low.  645 

gotten  it."  And  he  told  of  the  voice  in  the  telephone, 
and  the  maddening  question :  Why  did  you  want  to  buy 
the  Flying  Scud  ? 

This  circumstance,  coming  on  the  back  of  the  mon- 
strous improbabilities  of  the  sale,  was  enough  to  have 
shaken  the  reason  of  Immanuel  Kant.  The  earth  seemed 
banded  together  to  defeat  them ;  the  stones  and  the  boys 
on  the  street  appeared  to  be  in  possession  of  their  guilty 
secret.  Flight  was  their  one  thought.  The  treasure  of 
the  Currency  Lass  they  packed  in  waist-belts,  expressed 
their  chests  to  an  imaginary  address  in  British  Columbia, 
and  left  San  Francisco  the  same  afternoon,  booked  for 
Los  Angeles. 

The  next  day  they  piirsued  their  retreat  by  the  South- 
ern Pacific  route,  which  Carthew  followed  on  his  way 
to  England;  but  the  other  three  branched  off  for 
Mexico. 


EPILOGUE  : 


TO  WaLL  H.  LOW. 


Dear  Low  :  The  other  day  (at  Manihiki  of  all  places) 
I  had  the  pleasure  to  meet  Dodd.  We  sat  some  two 
hours  in  the  neat,  little,  toy-like  church,  set  with  pews 
after  the  manner  of  Europe,  and  inlaid  with  mother-of- 
pearl  in  the  style  (I  suppose)  of  the  New  Jerusalem. 


546  THE   WllECKEJR. 

The  natives,  who  are  decidedly  the  most  attractive 
inhabitants  of  this  planet,  crowded  round  us  in  the  pew, 
and  fawned  upon  and  patted  us ;  and  here  it  was  I  put 
my  questions,  and  Dodd  answered  me. 

I  first  carried  him  back  to  the  night  in  Barbizon  when 
Carthew  told  his  story,  and  asked  him  what  was  done 
about  Bellairs.  It  seemed  he  had  put  the  matter  to  his 
friend  at  once,  and  that  Carthew  took  it  with  an  inim- 
itable lightness.  "  He's  poor,  and  I'm  rich,"  he  had 
said.  "  I  can  afford  to  smile  at  him.  I  go  somewhere 
else,  that's  all  —  somewhere  that's  far  away  and  dear 
to  get  to.  Persia  would  be  found  to  answer,  I  fancy. 
No  end  of  a  place,  Persia.  Why  not  come  with  me  ?  " 
And  they  had  left  the  next  afternoon  for  Constanti- 
nople, on  their  way  to  Teheran.  Of  the  shyster,  it  is 
only  known  (by  a  newspaper  paragraph)  that  he  returned 
somehow  to  San  Prancisco  and  died  in  the  hospital. 

"  Now  there's  another  point,"  said  I.  "  There  you  are 
off  to  Persia  with  a  millionaire,  and  rich  yourself.  How 
come  you  here  in  the  South  Seas,  running  a  ti-ader  ?  " 

He  said,  with  a  smile,  that  I  had  not  yet  heard  of 
Jim's  last  bankruptcy.  "  I  was  about  cleaned  out  once 
more,"  he  said ;  "  and  then  it  was  that  Carthew  had  this 
schooner  built,  and  put  me  in  as  supercargo.  It's  his 
yacht  and  it's  my  trader ;  and  as  nearly  all  the  expenses 
go  to  the  yacht,  I  do  pretty  well.  As  for  Jim,  he's 
right  again  :  one  of  the  best  businesses,  they  say,  in  the 
West,  fruit,  cereals,  and  real  estate ;  and  he  has  a  Tartar 


epilogue:  to  will  h.  low.  647 

of  a  partner  now  —  Nares,  no  less.  Nares  will  keep 
him  straight,  Nares  has  a  big  head.  They  have  their 
country-places  next  door  at  Saucelito,  and  I  stayed  with 
them  time  about,  the  last  time  I  was  on  the  coast.  Jim 
has  a  paper  of  his  own  —  I  think  he  has  a  notion  of 
being  senator  one  of  these  days  —  and  he  wanted  me  to 
throw  up  the  schooner  and  come  and  write  his  editorials. 
He  holds  strong  views  on  the  State  Constitution,  and  so 
does  Mamie." 

"  And  what  became  of  the  other  three  Currency  Lasses 
after  they  left  Carthew  ?  "  I  inquired. 

"  Well,  it  seems  they  had  a  huge  spree  in  the  city  of 
Mexico,"  said  Dodd ;  "  and  then  Hadden  and  the  Irish- 
man took  a  turn  at  the  gold  fields  in  Venezuela,  and 
Wicks  went  on  alone  to  Valparaiso.  There's  a  Kirkup 
in  the  Chilean  navy  to  this  day,  I  saw  the  name  in  the 
papers  about  the  Balmaceda  war.  Hadden  soon  wearied 
of  the  mines,  and  I  met  him  the  other  day  in  Sydney. 
The  last  news  he  had  from  Venezuela,  Mac  had  been 
knocked  over  in  an  attack  on  the  gold  train.  So  there's 
only  the  three  of  them  left,  for  Amalu  scarcely  counts. 
He  lives  on  his  own  land  in  IMaui,  at  the  side  of  Hale-a- 
ka-la,  where  he  keeps  Goddedaal's  canary ;  and  they  say 
he  sticks  to  his  dollars,  which  is  a  wonder  in  a  Kanaka. 
He  had  a  considerable  pile  to  start  with,  for  not  only 
Hemstead's  share  but  Carthew's  was  divided  equally 
among  the  other  four  —  Mac  being  counted." 

"  What  did  that  make  for  him  altoirether  ?  "  I  could 


548  THE   WIIECKER. 

not  help  asking,  for  I  had  been  diverted  by  the  number 
of  calculations  in  his  narrative. 

"  One  hundred  and  twenty-eight  pounds  nineteen  shil- 
lings and  eleven  pence  halfpenny,"  he  replied  with 
composure.  "That's  leaving  out  what  little  he  won  at 
Van  John.     It's  something  for  a  Kanaka,  you  know." 

And  about  that  time  we  were  at  last  obliged  to  yield 
to  the  solicitations  of  our  native  admirers,  and  go  to  the 
pastor's  house  to  drink  green  cocoanuts.  The  ship  I 
was  in  was  sailing  the  same  night,  for  Dodd  had  been 
beforehand  and  got  all  the  shell  in  the  island;  and 
though  he  pressed  me  to  desert  and  return  with  him  to 
Auckland  (whither  he  was  now  bound  to  pick  up  Car- 
thew)  I  was  firm  in  my  refusal. 

The  truth  is,  since  I  have  been  mixed  up  with  Havens 
and  Dodd  in  the  design  to  publish  the  latter's  narrative, 
I  seem  to  feel  no  want  for  Carthew's  society.  Of  course 
I  am  wholly  modern  in  sentiment,  and  think  nothing 
more  noble  than  to  publish  people's  private  affairs  at  so 
much  a  line.  They  like  it,  and  if  they  don't,  they  ought 
to.  But  a  still  small  voice  keeps  telling  me  they  will 
not  like  it  always,  and  perhaps  not  always  stand  it. 
Memory  besides  supplies  me  with  the  face  of  a  press- 
man (in  the  sacred  phrase)  who  proved  altogether  too 
modern  for  one  of  his  neighbours,  and 

Qui  nunc  it  per  iter  tenehricosum 

as  it  were,  marshalling  us  our  way.     I  am  in  no  haste  to 


EPILOGUE;   TO    WILL    H.   LOW.  649 

—  nos  prcecedens — 
be  that  man's  successor.     Carthew  has  a  record  as  "a 
clane  shot,"   and  for  some  years  Samoa  will  be  good 
enough  for  me. 

We  agreed  to  separate,  accordingly ;  but  he  took  me 
on  board  in  his  own  boat  with  the  hard- wood  fittings, 
and  entertained  me  on  the  way  with  an  account  of  his 
late  visit  to  Butaritari,  whither  he  had  gone  on  an 
errand  for  Carthew,  to  see  how  Topelius  was  getting 
along,  and,  if  necessary,  to  give  him  a  helping  hand. 
But  Topelius  was  in  great  force,  and  had  patronised  and 
—  well  — out-manoeuvred  him. 

"Carthew  will  be  pleased,"  said  Dodd;  "for  there's 
no  doubt  they  oppressed  the  man  abominably  when  they 
were  in  the  Currency  Lass.  It's  diamond  cut  diamond 
now." 


This,  I  think,  was  tli^  most  of  the  news  I  got  from 
my  friend  Loudon ;  and  I  hope  I  was  well  inspired,  and 
have  put  all  the  questions  to  which  you  would  be  curious 
to  hear  an  answer. 

But  there  is  one  more  that  I  daresay  you  are  burning 
to  put  to  myself ;  and  that  is,  what  your  own  name  is 
doing  in  this  place,  cropping  up  (as  it  were  uncalled-for) 
on  the  stern  of  our  poor  ship  ?  If  you  were  not  born 
in  Arcadia,  you  linger  in  fancy  on  its  margin ;  3'our 
thoughts  are  busied  with  the  flutes  of  antitputy,  with 


650  THE   WRECKER. 

daffodils,  and  the  classic  poplar,  and  the  footsteps  of  the 
nymphs,  and  the  elegant  and  moving  aridity  of  ancient 
art.  Why  dedicate  to  you  a  tale  of  a  caste  so  modern ;  — 
full  of  details  of  our  barbaric  manners  and  unstable 
morals;  —  full  of  the  need  and  the  lust  of  money,  so  that 
there  is  scarce  a  page  in  which  the  dollars  do  not  jingle  ; 

—  full  of  the  unrest  and  movement  of  our  century,  so 
that  the  reader  is  hurried  from  place  to  place  and  sea 
to  sea,  and  the  book  is  less  a  romance  than  a  panorama ; 

—  in  the  end,  as  blood-bespattered  as  an  epic  ? 

Well,  you  are  a  man  interested  in  all  problems  of  art, 
even  the  most  vulgar ;  and  it  may  amuse  you  to  hear  the 
genesis  and  growth  of  The  Wrecker.  On  board  the  schoon- 
er Equator,  almost  within  sight  of  the  Johnstone  Islands 
(if  anybody  knows  where  these  are)  and  on  a  moonlit  night 
when  it  was  a  joy  to  be  alive,  the  authors  were  amused 
with  several  stories  of  the  sale  of  wrecks.  The  subject 
tempted  them ;  and  they  sat  apart  in  the  alley -way  to 
discuss  its  possibilities.  "  What  a  tangle  it  would 
make,"  suggested  one,  "  if  the  wrong  crew  were 
aboard.  But  how  to  get  the  wrong  crew  there  ?  "  — 
"  I  have  it !  "  cried  the  other ;  "  the  so-and-so  affair !  " 
For  not  so  many  months  before,  and  not  so  many  hiin- 
dred  miles  from  where  we  were  then  sailing,  a  proiio- 
sition  almost  tantamount  to  that  of  Captain  Trent 
had  been  made  by  a  British  skipper  to  some  British 
castaways. 

Before  we  turned  in,  the  scaffolding  of  the  tale  had 


EPILOGUE:   TO   WILL   H.   LOW.  551 

been  put  together.  But  the  question  of  treatment  was 
as  usual  more  obscure.  We  had  long  been  at  once 
attracted  and  repelled  by  that  very  modern  form  of  the 
police  novel  or  mystery  stor^^,  which  consists  in  begin- 
ning your  yarn  anywhere  but  at  the  beginning,  and 
finishing  it  anywhere  but  at  the  end ;  attracted  by  its 
peculiar  interest  when  done,  and  the  peculiar  difficulties 
that  attend  its  execution ;  repelled  by  that  appearance  of 
insincerity  and  shallowness  of  tone,  which  seems  its  inev- 
itable drawback.  For  the  mind  of  the  reader,  always  bent 
to  pick  up  clews,  receives  no  impression  of  reality  or  life, 
rather  of  an  airless,  elaborate  mechanism ;  and  the  book 
remains  enthralling,  but  insignificant,  like  a  game  of 
chess,  not  a  work  of  human  art.  It  seemed  the  cause 
might  lie  partly  in  the  abrupt  attack ;  and  that  if  the 
tale  were  gradually  approached,  some  of  the  characters 
introduced  (as  it  were)  beforehand,  and  the  book  started 
in  the  tone  of  a  novel  of  manners  and  experience  briefly 
treated,  this  defect  might  be  lessened  and  our  mystery 
seem  to  inhere  in  life.  The  tone  of  the  age,  its  move- 
ment, the  mingling  of  races  and  classes  in  the  dollar 
hunt,  the  fiery  and  not  quite  unromantic  struggle  for 
existence  with  its  changing  trades  and  scenery,  and  two 
types  in  particular,  that  of  the  American  handy-man  of 
business  and  that  of  the  Yankee  merchant  sailor  —  we 
agreed  to  dwell  upon  at  some  length,  and  make  the  woof 
to  our  not  very  precious  warp.  Hence  Dodd's  father, 
and  Pinkerton,  and  Nares,  and  the  Dromedary  picnics, 


552  THE   WRECKER. 

and  the  railway  work  in  New  South  Wales  —  the  last  an 
unsolicited  testimonial  from  the  powers  that  be,  for  the 
tale  was  half  written  before  I  saw  Carthew's  squad  toil 
in  the  rainy  cutting  at  South  Clifton,  or  heard  from  the 
engineer  of  his  "young  swell."  After  we  had  invented 
at  some  expense  of  time  this  method  of  approaching  and 
fortifying  our  police  novel,  it  occurred  to  us  it  had  been 
invented  previously  by  some  one  else,  and  was  in  fact  — 
however  painfully  different  the  results  may  seem  —  tlie 
method  of  Charles  Dickens  in  his  later  work. 

I  see  you  staring.  Here,  you  will  say,  is  a  prodigious 
quantity  of  theory  to  our  halfpenny  worth  of  police 
novel ;  and  withal  not  a  shadow  of  an  answer  to  your 
question. 

Well,  some  of  us  like  theory.  After  so  long  a  piece  of 
practice,  these  may  be  indulged  for  a  few  pages.  And 
the  answer  is  at  hand.  It  was  plainly  desirable,  from 
every  point  of  view  of  convenience  and  contrast,  that 
our  hero  and  narrator  should  partly  stand  aside  from 
those  with  whom  he  mingles,  and  be  but  a  pressed-man  in 
the  dollar  hunt.  Thus  it  Avas  that  Loudon  Dodd  became 
a  student  of  the  plastic  arts,  and  that  our  globe-trotting 
story  came  to  visit  Paris  and  look  in  at  Barbizon.  And 
thus  it  is,  dear  Low,  that  your  name  appears  in  the 
address  of  this  epilogue. 

For  sure,  if  any  person  can  here  appreciate  and  read 
between  the  lines,  it  must  be  you  —  and  one  other,  our 
friend.      All  the  dominos  will  be  transparent  to  your 


epilogue:  to  will  h.  low.  553 

better  knowledge ;  the  statuary  contract  will  be  to  you 
a  piece  of  ancient  history ;  and  you  will  not  have  now 
heard  for  the  first  time  of  the  dangers  of  Eoussillon. 
Dead  leaves  from  the  Bas  Breau,  echoes  from  Lavenue's 
;ind  the  Eue  Racine,  memories  of  a  common  past,  let 
these  be  your  bookmarkers  as  you  read.  And  if  you 
care  for  naught  else  in  the  story,  be  a  little  pleased  to 
breathe  once  more  for  a  moment  the  airs  of  our  youth. 


# 

THE    END. 


Typography  by  J.  S.  Gushing  &  Co.,  Boston,  U.S.A. 


Presswork  by  Berwick  &  Smith,  Boston,  U.S.A. 


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